


Open Door

by Elven_defender



Category: My Babysitter's A Vampire, benny weir - Fandom, mbav - Fandom
Genre: Benny weir - Freeform, F/M, My babysitters a vampire, mbav
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-08 06:32:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14688471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elven_defender/pseuds/Elven_defender
Summary: Mia moves to a new town, called Whitechapel. As she and her previous best friend’s relationship starts to deminish, she meet two, nerdy, kind boys and quickly is accepted into their friend group.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! If you have any suggests let me know! I’ve finally got back into writing and I’m not as good as I used to be. I appriciate any comments or kudos i get on this work!! Thank you!!

Moving to Canada was an odd choice. Even for both of their odd families. Especially, the small town.

Why not somewhere big and well known? Whitechapel of all places. It was a small, secluded town, in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Everyone was close, and if you so much as dropped a pencil, everyone knew within 8 minutes. Normally. Your reputation stayed, and never changed, unless you became a hero. And those chances were supernatural. Oddly enough. 

Mia was moving to an average sized, 3 story house. Upper level, ground level, and the basement. Bedrooms were almost all on the upper floor. 

What seemed like the only good thing about this move was the fact that her best friend was moving with her. (Toby. Because I said so. I was gonna use Veronica because I like that name, but you know.) 

Although Toby's house was a few down, it was still a short walk. Just a few minutes of walking. Or running. 

The school that both girls were officially registered in was pretty big for a small town. While walking in the doors, they realized that it was a big school, for a small number of students. Or so it seemed. Although, the "drama club" that they were told about seemed extremely odd and dramatic. It was a odd sense of dejã vū. Although, everyone seemed 'off' to her. Especially in this town. However, that was probably her fascination with conspiracies, and horror stories. 

Even with all the unpacking, it seemed as if Mia had already met the whole town. Ethan, who was oddly cute, was Toby's favorite. He seemed nerdy and sweet. His parents were also nice, whenever they came over to greet Toby and her parents. Mia's was probably Rory, as he immediately came up to the two friends at school, pointing out your nerdy shirt. He was upbeat and nice, in the end he seemed pretty harmless. 

There was also a nice girl named Jane, Ethan's sister. Hannah Price, a preppy and reasonably respectable Yearbook Committee member. An emo seeming girl named Cindy. A nice boy named Sam, and a few other mathlete approached Mia and Toby. 

Although, no one seemed like someone who would be a good friend, maybe Ethan. But he has other priorities. However, she did walk away with a blonde girl, who seemed weirdly into Dusk. But Mia thought she would be fine in a new school, all alone.


	2. Two

                The first night before school, Mia was sure to have everything packed. They were given a day to go through the school, and pick their locker. She finally got to, a few days ago. Way later than the other students.  

     Waking up reasonably refreshed, Mia made her way to Whitechapel High. The first thing she was able to see was the principal, speaking to the drama club, and their 'leader,' Jesse, taking his coffee and drinking it. Apperantly Ethan noticed too, because he stopped right in front of her, with a friend. 

"Gross..."  
"Gah!" Ethan jumped a little, frightened by Mia suddenly talking behind him. 

"Oh, sorry." She stepped back a little, feeling embarrassed to scare Ethan in front of his tall friend. 

"Oh hey, Benny, this is Mia." 

"Hey Sweetness!" He winked at her, and her cheeks immediately turned red. She expected something mean, not a cute nickname.

Ethan quickly slapped Benny in the arm, "sorry about him. He flirts lit everyone under the sun." 

Benny rolled his eyes, "so not true." 

Mia chuckled, "oh course. Hey, do you guys have any idea where Chem is? It's my first hour and I have no idea where to go." 

"Yeah! You can go with me!" Benny fist pumped the air, and smiled brightly. "We can sit by each other since Ethan isn't with me in that class." 

She smiled back, and nodded. 

"Speaking of which, we better head off. It's 3 minutes before the bell and I need to get to my locker." 

Benny made a 'follow me' motion with his hand as he turned his back to Ethan, heading down the hallway. 

"So, where'd you move here from?" 

"Oh, I moved here from the U.S."

"Dude that's so cool, what's it like there?" 

Benny and Mia continued with their small talk, with small flirty comments made in between. He made sure to show off any Star Wars merch he had in his locker before the headed to class. 

———————————

Benny and Ethan had rejoined as soon as Benny and Mia has split up. 

Seeing Ethan and Benny in the lunch line, she met up with them, hoping she wasn't intruding. 

"Hey, are you guys busy? Or could I hang out with you guys?" 

"Uh, absolutely." Benny chuckled and smiled at her as Ethan nodded and  shouted  a quick "hello," back to her before turning back to his food. 

She stood awkwardly behind them in line, a little like a 3rd wheel. Until they reached the lunch ladies. 

"Benny, this is it. Our whole future social lives could depend on how we behave the next few days, so—" 

"What'd you think?" Mia looked the commotion, and saw Benny with some cool looking goggles. 

"Benny!" Ethan ripped the goggles off of his head. 

"Those are state of the art alien DNA detector goggles!" 

"Yeah, so?" 

"High school cafeteria is the ideal place to test them out." 

"I've gotta 2nd that." Mia chimed in.  
"But it'll brand us as dorks for the next four years!"  
"Just give me the goggles."  
"No. You promise to be cool?"  
"Okay, I will—" 

Mia chuckled at their arguing.  
"Hey, you guys! Hey, over here!"  
"Oh no..." Benny muttered.  
"The three amigos ride again!"  
Rory, the adorable blonde nerd that Mia  saw on her first day here. He was super sweet. But Benny and Ethan seemed annoyed by him. 

"Any of you got a buck .28?  
"Sure, Rorster." Mia politely gave him $2, feeling too lazy to count out .28 cents. 

"Ugh, okay, that's it. I'm getting away from you guys or I'm doomed to be—" Ethan turned abruptly, crashing his food into a dark haired girl, who was really pretty. 

"Ah! Dork! Thank you, so much." Ethan froze, letting his tray sit on the floor. 

———————————

Mia walked around the cafeteria for a few minutes, trying to find Toby. She did find Toby, but with the cheerleaders and jocks. 

"Hey, Tobes! Wanna come sit with me?"  
"Hey! Sorry. Tomorrow?" 

Mia nodded and walked off, hoping Benny and Ethan wouldn't outcast her like most other kids did. 

They gladly accepted her to their table. Which she was thankful for. They were super nice, and seemed like great people, but she always had a lurking feeling that they would suddenly turn on her or talk about her behind her back. But she decided to get over that. 

"Are you into Dusk? If you are there's a girl over there who's super into it too, if you wanna make more friends. If you hang out with us, you'll get branded as a geek though, so watch out." Ethan chuckled. But hearing what he said left a pang of hurt in her heart. 

"Actually, I think geeks are pretty cool. And you guys are super sweet, I'd love to be friends!" Mia smiled at them brightly, getting smiles in return. She knew she wouldn't be this happy all school year. 

Benny stared straight at Sarah, "no way, the babe you branded is friends with her?"

"Who?"  
"Stage one Dusker Girl?"  
"Her name is Erica, and she's the Princess Leia to my Han Solo." 

Mia's POV

It's kinda weird hearing him talk about other girls like that. I mean he's super cute and I think I have a crush on him. But I think that wont work out. I couldn't handle him flirting with all these girls if we dated. God, I just met the guy! 

"Hey, maybe she's your babysitter for tonight?" 

"You got a babysitter? For you?" I chuckled. I felt like we were close enough for me to be able o make fun of him. 

"Okay, first, in no universe are you Han, and the babysitter is for my little sister, Jane. And, i doubt it's the same Erica." 

"I can go check or at least talk to her." 

Before Ethan could stop me, I got up and walked over to Sarah and Erica.  
"Hey! Sorry about my friend spilling his food on you. Erica, and Sarah, right?" 

They both smiled, "yeah hey! I heard you're new here?"  
"Yeah, thanks for noticing!" You chuckled.  
Before you could say anything else, Benny marched over and flung his arm around you. 

"Hi there. Are you by chance babysitting the Morgan's tonight?"  
"Yeah." She looked shocked a little. "Why, do you know their kids?"  
"Yeah, one of them's my buddy, sitting right over... there." 

"He's shy" I chimed in. 

"See you around." Benny smiled as he left, and I followed him, waving at Erica and Sarah." 

I rolled my eyes as Benny got grossly excited over Erica. I was jealous. I hate it, and I hope it'll go away soon. Ew. 

Benny sat down, "yeah! I think she likes me."  
"What? Why?" Ethan looked disgusted for a second. 

Benny shook his head. "Hey, Mia! Wanna come over and hang out at Ethan's with us?" He turned to Ethan, "you need someone to talk to while I flirt with Erica." He winked. Gross. 

"Sure, I love being the back up." I laughed, and Benny took it as a joke. It wasn't. I don't really wanna be the 3rd wheel while the only cute boy I like in Whitechapel flirts with some Dusker. 

"Great! I'll bring movies and stuff." 

—————————————————-

Ethan texted me asking to meet up so we could all walk home together. He also texted me Benny's number. 

I gladly put that in my contacts. As "Cute goggles" I saw them and jogged over, waving until we started walking. "Hey, check it out, looks like the found the rest of that missing senior." "The rest?" "Yeah, says here he was all shriveled up." "Dude, wicked." I chuckled at that. "Yeah, kinda like this juice box." Benny gasped as he joking squeezed the juice box, and a ton squirted on Ethan. "Oh, bummer. Looks like she's already hooked up with Mr. Too-cool-for-school." "It looks like they're just fighting to me. Maybe she needs a nice guy like you, Eth." I smiled, trying to give him a little hope, and Sarah a less dick-ish boyfriend. We all stopped for a minute to watch, while Rory showed up and got ignored, but stayed quiet with us. "There's something not right about that drama club." Ethan was ignored too, while we all stood watching Erica embarrass herself. "I am so going to your house tonight." Benny swooned. I felt yet another stupid pang of jealousness in my chest. "Great, the more mathletes the merrier." Ethan mumbled sarcasticly. "Can I come?" Me and Rory both chimed in. "Mia, yeah, Rory, no." I felt really bad seeing Benny and Ethan kinda ignore him like that. So I made sure to tell Rory we'd hang out together soon. We all started walking again when the drama club's shared car drove past us, realllly close. "Watch it nerds!" Some stupid doofus yelled out at us. I flipped him off, and said nothing else, as I didn't wanna cause a scene.


	3. Three

Mia’s POV

 

I made my way to Ethan’s house later that night. The neighborhood was nice and quiet, and I was excited to spend more time with both boys. As I was approaching the front door, I spotted Benny’s signature star bag. 

“Hey, Benny!” I waved at him, smiling. Though I bet he couldnt see since it was quite dark outside. 

“Hey, Mia. Wazzzapppp?” He chuckled, turning to the door to know, making space for me to stand on the top step with him. As I got closer I noticed snacks and movies in his arms. “Hey, let me help you carry this stuff.”   
He gladly let me, giving me the movies. 

Just then, he muttered, “I hope it’s not locked.” He opened the door, like it was his own home. Immediately saying, “Okay, I have pop, chips, and the first season of the bloodsuckers diaries.” Everyone froze for a second. It was really confusing until I saw Sarah. Benny quickly popped the fake vampire teeth in his mouth, while Sarah stared at him awkwardly. 

She shook her head a little and turned to Ethan, “Where’s your bathroom?” 

“Oh um, it’s down that hall there and to the left.”

Sarah walked away while Benny stepped forward, taking his teeth out. “Dude, isn’t that your robo-babe from school?”   
“Yes. I guess Erica couldn’t come so she sent her instead.” 

“So now you’ll be forced to hang out with me while Ethan and Satha canoodle on the couch.” I chuckled, poking Benny’s shoulder. 

“You act like that’s a punishment. You’re super fun so it wont be any different.” Benny looked in my direction and winked at me, being the Casanova he is. 

“Anyway, let’s order some ‘zza. I’m starving.” Benny pulled out his phone and I chuckled when I heard him say, “Hey, it’s me.” Of course he orders often. 

But what was even funnier was his monologue to the poor pizza guy. 

“Give me the usual and supersize that puppy,” he chuckled, which I thought was super cute. “I’m next door. It’s, uh, exactly 7:19. You have 30 minutes or it’s free, engage!” And he hung up the phone. 

I was looking at all the snacks Benny brought over when Ethan started freaking out, “Benny, Mia.” He looked at us as he urgently whispered, freaking me out. 

“All right dude. This new Galactica spin-off is on tonight and we should totally- okay what’s up?” 

I think Benny took a second to realize that there was actually an issue, because he ignored Ethan until he saw the look on his face. 

He looked frantically between us and the floor, “I just saw Sarah. She was... she was in front of the mirror, but, not in it.”

“Okay, hold up, how much aftershave did you drink?” I thought that was really funny, but I disgustingly snorted at his comment, earning myself a smile and a quick look from Benny. 

“Guys, I’m serious! Her reflection was all wonky. She’s not normal, okay? She’s like a-“ 

“Hey look, you guys dont really need a sitter, do you? 

Benny looked like he was gonna say something, but looked back at me and decided against it. 

Ethan shook his head, “No no, were fine. My mom just like humiliating me to make a point.” 

Sarah turned away, “okay good. I need to find my friend Erica, I think she’s in trouble.”

“Uh, maybe I should come with you. You know, for protection.” 

Ethan followed Sarah a few steps, then when she dropped something, Ethan tried to give it to her, but he froze and gasped. 

Sarah looked a little freaked out before letting go of his hand. “Trust me, you don’t wanna go out tonight. Besides,” she laughed to herself, “save those muscles for protecting yourself.”

Ethan looked freaked out himself, before turning back to us as Sarah walked out the back door. 

I couldn’t tell if Benny was joking or not. “Wow, smooth. We get a girl over here and you have to immediately go and weird her out. Besides you, sweetness.” He turn around and put his arm on me. He flirting seemed forced maybe? I didn’t know bit it gave me beetles in my stomach. 

“I’m telling you, I just saw something. Okay. She’s not normal and I’m gonna find out what’s going on.”

“Fine, undercover brothers, and sisters, on a mission. I like it.” He stepped back a little so he didnt have to turn to look at me anymore. 

“Hey, boys, arent you forgetting something?” I smirked. 

Jane walked in, as if on cue. “Yeah, what are you forgetting?” 

——————————————— 

We sat around for almost 5 minutes until Evelynn arrived. 

“Thanks grandma! You’re a lifesaver.”  
“Anytime dear. Who’s the new geek squad member?” She chuckled, smiling at me.”  
“Hi! I’m Mia. Nice to meet you.” I stuck my hand out, until she pulled me into a soft hug.

I giggled as she messed with Benny’s hair, and he told her about the pizza.

“We’ll all be right back. I promise.” Ethan slid his jacket on, and lead me and Benny out the door. 

————————————————

As we all walked, things kept falling out of Benny’s bag. 

“What is all that stuff?” Ethan asked, as if he didn’t expect Benny to be prepared. 

“Digicams with night vision infrared. You can’t possibly expect us to investigate the supernatural realm without the proper equipment!” Benny was super geeky, and super cute. Find me another nerd who would carry alll of this around and expect people to not be shocked. 

“Fine, just keep it on the down low, okay? She already thinks im a perv.” 

“Maybe that’s because you walked into the bathroom, she could have been naked or something.” I chuckled, laughing at Ethan. “Hey, you said her reflection wasnt all there, right?”

“Yeah.” Ethan muttered. 

Benny chimed in, “here’s a thought. What if this is some publicity stunt for that stupid Dusk movie?” He stopped and looked around, and screamed, “if this is a punk, I knew it all along.” I smiled and shook my head, following them while Ethan yelled at Benny. 

Eventually we made our way to an alleyway, while Benny had put his goggles on a while ago, I almost couldnt take him seriously when he started talking. 

“We lost her. Must. Have. Pizza.” He dramatically flung his arms down with every word. What a nerd. 

“She’s out here, I... i feel it.”

“Thats a bit weird. But we could keep looking for a little while longer.” I smiled sympathetically. 

Benny took his goggles off as we heard a rustling by some trash cans. We all walked over quietly, and after we saw something movie, Benny pulled up his camera. 

“Night vision engaged.” 

After a minute, Ethan tried to walk into the alley, Benny stopping him. “We should leave.” 

“I agree, it’s gonna eat us.” I whispered. 

“You whispering is creepier.” “Don’t be a chump.” I retorted. 

“Ethan, Mia, we should leave right now.” Benny looked so sick and sweaty, as Ethan took his camera and they both started screaming.

Ethan stared running while Benny just stood there, so I grabbed his hand and started running, and decided to start screaming as well. It probably wouldnt do anything, but you’ve gotta try not to get eaten by a... vamp? 

We all ran down the street as fast as we could. “I hate running, so much.” I tried to say, through my panting breaths. 

“We are so dead!” 

“Speak for youself, skinny guy coming through! Warp nine!”

“Ahhhh, help! My babysitter’s a vampire!” Ethan screamed dramatically.


	4. Four

We kept running when we reached the corner, all of us panting and freaking out. 

"Remember Halo? Level3?" Benny tried to manage between breaths, "the battle plan I sent you? Evasive maneuvers?"

We stared to slow down by that point, running through the middle of the deserted road

I couldn't see Sarah anymore, so I stopped running while Benny jogged towards a big plant pot. "Alpha phi strike delta six. Engage!" He then threw himself over the dirty pot. It was kinda cool to watch, but I didn't see the point in it. 

He fell over and me and Ethan ran over to him. "You missed... the pattern."   
"Sometimes, I just skim your emails." 

"If I had gotten the email I would have read it." I tried to make him feel better. I wasn't very sure if it would was helping or not. Benny sighed and got up off the ground. Grabbing on to one of my hands, and one of Ethan's while we pulled him up. 

"What's your problem?" We screamed as we saw Sarah again. 

"Just, hang on! If you eat us, that would so not be cool." 

"If I wanted to eat you, I would have done it by now." She laughed, and threw her head back. 

"See? She's gonna eat us!!"

"Benny, no. That means she hasn't and isn't going to eat us." I patted his shoulder, still hiding behind him and Ethan. 

Sarah was able to get us to stop screaming enough to explain most of the situation, and walked all of us back to Ethan's house. 

 

We walked through the door, and immediately Jane asked for Sarah to play DDR with her. "Sorry, I've got to go. Just be careful, okay? And don't tell anyone about... you know." 

Ethan put his hands in his pockets, "uh, yeah, sure. I'm cool. And nobody believes anything benny says anyway." 

They all turned to look at me. "Hey, no worries. Your secret is safe with me." I winked at her, inching a bit closer to Benny." 

"I'm serious okay, whatever you do, do not invite a vampire into your house. It's your only safe haven."

"Got it!" I feel like we need some positivity. 

Sarah put her hand on her hip as we walked out the door, and all 3 of us stared at each other for a few seconds. The pizza guy rung the bell, ruining our "staring contest." 

"The pizza is so late, bonus!"

"It's cheese right?" I hoped it was cheeze. 

"Italiano deluxe." 

"Right on, even better." 

Benny chuckled at me as he ran to the door, eager to get his pizza.

Me and Ethan followed him as he opened the door. "Come on in, bro! Oh man, this is gonna taste so much better 'cause its free!" 

"Sorry dude, but we are just dying for a bite." I giggled a little and took the pizza from Benny's hands. We started opening the box, until we looked up when the pizza guy flashed fangs and yellow eyes, just like sarah. "So am I."

He snarled at as as we pointed and screamed. What else are we supposed to do? Just lay here and die? 

Jane ran towards me, behind Ethan and Benny. "Jane, it's okay. He's just playing a game. Don't worry." 

"Yeah, a game. Whoever tells me where Sarah is first spends less time screaming."

Sarah immediately entered the room, "can I play too?" 

Benny boldly hinted about the "italian pizza" wanting to throw it at him. But he decided to just shove it on his chest. While we was stunned, we ran up to Ethan's room. 

Before we knew it, we were back down in the living room, with pizza and silverware flung everywhere. 

"Good luck cleaning this up before your parents get home." 

We all stepped over the thrown chairs and lamps and made our way to the living room to examine the rest of the mess, "what, this? This is nothing.

"It's amazing she can still sleep right now."

"Agreed," I chimed in. 

"Yeah, grandma's got the magic touch. When I was 6 and scared of robots, she—" 

"Fascinating! Look, I have to get to Jesse's before midnight." 

Benny looked a bit dejected. "I'd love to hear the rest of that later Benny." I smiled at him and patted his shoulder.

"Wait so, that pizza guy's dead, right?" From what I saw, he disintegrated. So he should be dead. 

She explained something about a limo for souls, which I partly ignored because Benny walked off. He seemed like he could get in trouble when left to his own devices. 

"I found a survivor." Benny smiled at the pizza, and started eating it. Frankly, I would have liked some too. Now i'm hungry. 

Benny handed the piece of pizza to me, telling me to hold it while he dug out his phone. I took a huge bite out of the crust, just to irritate him. 

I couldn't hear much of the phone call, but I do know that Rory is at some senior party. And Erica's there too. By herself? And there's a buffet at midnight. And the drama club is full of vampires. 

Ethan eagerly tried to talk Rory out of staying at the party, but he hung up for a conga line. 

Benny and Ethan looked at each other and shared a thought apperantly. 

Benny turned to me, with a look of expectance, "Mia, you'd be fine letting Rory stay at the party. Right? Me and E don't NEED to go save him. Right?" 

"I think WE do, Benny. And I wanna help. We're all friends with Rory, so let's skidaddle." 

Benny squinted up his face and let out a sigh, "ugh fine, I'll go. But I'm not walking."

"Me either. I hate physical activity."


	5. Five

Benny dragged himself to the car, behind Ethan and me. 

He talked about switching to neutral. So we could be on the 'down low.' Ethan got ready to get into the car, stopping for a second. "What the heck is that?" 

"Replacement bulbs for grandma's tanning bed. Just push 'em over." 

"She likes rocking a tan. I saw her come out once..." he sighed and shook his head. 

"Wait, so did you see her walk out naked? Do people tan naked? So many questions." 

He kinda shrugged then looked at me as I got in the passenger side, "she was naked, and I think most people take naked? So it like tans their whole bodies." He motioned up and down is torso, giving me a half smile. 

Benny started the car and we drove off after Ethan got in fully. I have to say, he's not the best driver. But it'd have to do. We got to talk about Star Wars and all of our Halloween costumes. Benny suggested that I go as Leia and he go as Han, and Ethan could find something to fit into that mix. We passed the alley we found Sarah at earlier and pulled to a stop. 

"Hello Miss! Can you tell us where the vampire party's at?" Ethan leaned out the window and smiled at her. 

Sarah chuckled and walked over, "okay, I'm acting crazy because I got bit. What's your excuse?"

"To fight crime!" Benny yelled from the front seat. I chuckled a little from the passenger side. 

"I wanna drive though." Benny shrugged and got in the back seat, shoving Ethan out into the front. 

"You should sit with Sarah, E." I hinted.

His eyes widened in realization and he moved to let me climb in back by Benny. 

We drove to the party fairly quietly. Sarah drove a lot faster than Benny though. After a minute or two, Benny turned to me, "so. What kinda stuff do you like?"

I had to think for a minute. "Anything sci-fi? Paranormal and supernatural stuff. Anything weird."

"Dude, me too!! You should come over sometime and watch Star Wars with me." 

"That sounds fun. I've never actually seen it."   
"Really?"   
"Yeah." I shrugged a little, hoping the one group I managed to fit into wouldn't outcast me over Star Wars. 

"Guys, this weekend, movie night. All of us. Sarah you can come if you want. But it's mandatory for Mia and Ethan." He leaned up between Sarah and Ethan, throwing his head back when he finished talking. 

We didn't have much more time to talk, as we reached Jesse's house pretty fast. Ethan begged Sarah to let him come and help, but she snarled at him, making him jump back. She turned to Benny and I. He pointed back and fourth between both of us as he told her, "we wanted to stay in the car anyway, so we're cool right here." 

I smiled at her and nodded in agreement with Benny's statement. But I knew Ethan wouldn't have the brain to stay in the car. 

After a few minutes, we made sure she was gone and piled out of the car. Making our way to the back of his house, by the pool. Which seemed so fun, by the way. 

Benny tried to record some "vampire action" when Ethan wanted to play tug-of-war for the camcorder. It probably wasn't a bright idea though. We could get caught easily. 

"Benny, you should put the camera up!" I started to freak out, while we all fell out of the bushes. A group of vampires looked at us, then looked at me as I pushed past Benny and Ethan. "Just a little o' positive fun." I smirked and winked at them, getting a pass. That sounded lame but probably something vampires would believe. 

We walked away scot free. "Dude, how'd you do that?" Benny looked kind of amazed. "It just sounded like something a vampire would believe." I shrugged at him. 

We all walked past the pool, with Benny making dramatic jokes. Ethan fake smiled at everyone he passed. "Let's just find Rory and Sarah and let's get out of here."  
"Got it." Me and Benny chuckled together.

Benny jumped around a little, "you know this is our first senior party." "You guys wanna dance, don't you?" "Just one?" I shrugged and followed them trying to copy any 'dance moves' I could find. I wasn't sure how to dance, really. They all seemed stupid. But Benny and Ethan were guys I could be stupid with. So I let loose a little and had fun. 

We kept our promise of one song, and hesitantly stopped dancing, remembering we needed to find Rory. 

"Wazzuppp?"   
Benny and Ethan jumped, before Rory started again, "so this girl, was so into me. Gave me a wicked hickey. I guess she could smell my qualifications." 

"Oh my god, dude." I shook my head at him. Who let's some random girl bite them that hard? 

"Rory we gotta go." Ethan tugged on his sleeve, turning away. 

"What? No way. We have to stay. This party is bank! Especially now that Mia's here." He winked at me, which looked pretty awkward.

Benny rolled his eyes, "look dude, we got him. Let's get out of here while we still can."  
"We can't leave without Sarah."  
"Do the words 'stay in the car' mean anything to you?" Benny furrowed his brow.  
"Should we really leave Sarah though?" I chimed in.  
"See! There she is. She's with McScary, doing things that don't concern us non-undead types. So let's go!" Benny looked at Ethan with pleading eyes.  
"I wanna know what they're up to." 

                       ***

We made it to the steps after carefully following Jesse. Benny pulled my beside him and Ethan before Rory could get by them.   
"Tonight is the night we take this town! But the prophecy cant be fulfilled until we meet our target. 219, soul for soul." Sarah was clearly distressed, as she was help by the shoulders by one of Jesse's minions. 

"Lame. Where's the band?" Rory chimed in. Ethan and Benny whisper-yelled at him while I lightly bopped him on the back of the head.   
He shut up after that.   
"It'll be an incredible night. Like something out of a movie." He paused for a second, "Fine. We're all hungry, the moon is full. Let's eat." He smirked as his crowd cheered. 

We all made our way down the stairs as quickly and quietly as possible. We found the front door, but it was locked. Just our luck. We turned around to find another door when the curly haired member of Jesse's flock stopped up. "Woah woah, where you girls going? You're just in time for dinner.   
"Sweet, what's on the menu?"  
Benny slapped his forehead at Rory's dimness.   
"Rory, we're on the menu." I sighed at him. 

Jesse brought Sarah over, coaxing her into biting us. Until she mentioned they couldn't eat us, because she was babysitting us. 

"Wait, you guys still need a babysitter?"  
Benny shook his head frantically, "no, he, he needs a babysitter." He pointed at Ethan. The curly haired vampire laughed at him, "so why exactly do you need a babysitter?"   
"No one here needs a babysitter, okay?" Ethan reasoned, embarrassed.   
Benny tried to make Ethan feel better, "Just because he's a vampire does he have to be suck a dorkwad? Seriously." 

He hissed at Benny, lunging at him. 

Jesse held him back, "woah, stop stop. Initiations will follow tradition. Fledglings drink first." Jesse tried coaxing Sarah into eating Rory, until Erica stepped up. "Fine, I'll do it!" She said giddily. She smiled and quickly plunged her new/found fangs into Rory's neck, both of them falling to the floor almost immediately after. 

Sarah pushed the curly haired vampire away, and quickly broke off two chair legs, making sharp steaks.   
The three of us ran behind her for protection, me and Ethan throwing the punch bowl onto the floor, and benny jumping over the spill before throwing a lamp onto it, electrocuting the two vampires who tried to come after us. 

We all raced out the door, high off adrenaline and fear. "We are sooo dead dudes!"   
"Where's Sarah?"   
"She abandoned us!" I screamed. 

She was actually right over the gate. We hopped over and immediately vampires cornered us, growling and snarling.   
Benny and Ethan pulled out the tanning bulbs, passing one to me.   
"I am so glad your grandma likes to tan!" 

"The force is strong in you, young padawan!" Benny chuckled. I admired the fact that he could be funny even while we were fighting undead creatures of the night.  
Ethan grunted, "you're the padawan, I'm the jedi!"  
I chuckled, swinging my 'lightsaber' at a blonde girl. "As if! You guys are both padawan's. I'm the jedi master."

"You guys are dorks! Now can we run to the car?"   
As soon as Sarah yelled that, we made a quick pass as we piled into the car as quickly as possible, swinging our bulbs and whatnot at the vampires, still chasing us. 

We lost the fairly quickly, and we all caught our breath and put the bulbs back into the cardboard box.

                     *** 

It was only a few minutes before we arrived at Ethan's. We dropped him and Sarah off, and said goodnight.   
"I can just walk home." I shrugged, getting ready to stop out of the car.   
"No way robo-babe. Not with what just happened." He winked at me, and smiled when I hopped back in and closed the door. 

He drove pretty slow, at least it seemed slow, compared to how Sarah drove. 

"It's nice having another nerd at our school, ya know?" Benny glanced at me, keeping his hands on the wheel. 

"It's nice to be here. I really like you guys. I just wish I still had Toby." I tried to play off my nostalgic comment, realizing it might have made him uncomfortable. 

"Maybe you guys just werent meant to be best friends forever? Either way, you have me and E now. We'll keep you company."  
"Thanks B." 

I smiled at him and he nodded and smiled back. We pulled up to my house, and I yawned as I got out of the car. Benny got out too, and I was confused until he walked me to my door and opened his arms for a hug. I think I might have needed that hug. It's was soft but protective and overall left me with a good feeling of butterflies. 

I smiled at him. "Goodnight, Benny. I'll see you at school tomorrow." 

He smiled back and put his hands in his pockets as he walked back to his car.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! This is the last part of the movie! I’ll start on season one next! 
> 
> Thanks for reading!

Last night really drained me. I woke up almost 20 minutes late for school. On my walk there. I got a text from Benny. 

Cute goggles: Hey! Meet us in front of our lockers asap.

Me: Okayzies :)

Although I hated it, I continued my walk to school faster than normal. I made just in time to see Erica and her groupies walk through the front doors. Then make out with Jesse right in front of Sarah. I quickly made my way past and found Ethan and Benny sitting with E’s laptop. 

Quickly plopped down next to Ethan and Benny gave me a dejected look, quickly turning his gaze back to the computer.   
“So, got a message from RoryI found in my mailbox this morning.” 

“Hey guys! Can you believe this? All these books and not a single decent comic. No X-Men, not even the hulk.”   
“Focus buddy.”   
“Okay, I think I found what you’re looking for. ‘an angels nest of shall seed earth, soul for soul the black army’s rebirth. Neath a swallowed moon the dead take route, a baron orchard bears the devil’s fruit. Woah. Best metal lyrics ever.”  
Continued again to recite from the book, but did his best heavy metal take on the words. 

Ethan closed the laptop, both of us turning to look at Benny, “ugh, I hate poetry! It never makes any sense! What ‘angel’s nest’?” 

My eyes widened a little, “Benny, sh! The cubile animus. Nest of souls.”

Ethan helped me explain, “They found it by the angel stature in the cemetery, remember?” 

“Oh. It’s seed the earth. Because the fox was buried in the ground.” Benny realized, looking a lot less confused.   
“What about the ‘black army’?” He questioned.   
“Easy! It’s Reverend Black’s followers.” I felt super smart now. 

“Oh so BOTH of you get better marks in Lit class than I do now. Awesome.” He joked, smiling at us. 

Ethan smiled back, “yeah, and I don’t call the teacher fartface to his face. And I don’t think she does either.” They looked at me and we all chuckled.

“Hey, guys, there’s a 2nd video file on the drive.” I pointed out.   
Ethan clicked on it and immediately a Dusk trailer opened up. 

“Why is that on there?” Benny asked, looking grossed out.   
“Wait, what did the poem say about the swallowed moon?” I questioned.   
Ethan and Benny shrugged, and E pulled up something on his laptop.   
“That’s it. Tonight is the lunar eclipse. There’s going to be 219 kids at that screening.”  
“219 souls,” I pursed my lips together, knowing we’d have to go see the movie.   
Benny’s eyes went wide, “no no, don’t say it. Do not say it.” 

I looked up and saw Sarah walking to us. “Hey guys! What’d I miss?”  
“The absolute worst news yet.”  
“We have to go see the new Dusk premiere.” I sighed, really wishing it could have been any other movie.

***

We all stood outside, watching Sarah grabbing parts of the wooden fence to use as steaks. Ethan, weirdly enough, already had a “vampire scarecrow” set up, ready to be attacked. 

We took turns stabbing and shooting our ‘vampire’ with steaks, and nurf darts. We also got water guns and stashed a gas jub with holy water. Benny filled it up, while me and Ethan dunked the water guns into the holy water, as fast as we could to avoid getting caught by the preacher. It was for a good cause. 

***

We met in Ethan’s room. I arrived just after Sarah, who was helping Ethan shove a few extra darts into his satchel. Benny kept my holy water guns at his house for the night and handed them to me as soon as I walked in the room. We all filed downstairs, with Ethan and Benny carrying big duffel bags. 

“Hey, Jane. We’ll be back soon, okay?” Ethan told his sister, while we all walked in with him. 

“If we don’t get sucked dry.” Benny pursed his lips together and shrugged. 

I think that gave Jane a little freak out, because she almost spit out her cereal. “What?!” 

“Benny’s just hoping he doesn’t cry at the movie!” I smiled at her.   
“Because he’s a wuss.” Sarah chuckled, hitting Benny harshly on the shoulder. 

He looked around for his grandma before yelling “see ya grandma!” And hoping she heard. We all got ready to head out before we heard her call us.  
“Uh no? Grandma we really have to go. Uh, I already ate and I don’t think we need any,-“ a look of shock crossed all of our faces when she pulled out sharp daggers. Me and Ethan both took one, while Benny still stood there shocked.   
“You’ll need those if you’re gonna be battling the bloodsuckers. Oh! And this. I bookmarked a few spells for you. But be careful. They don’t always do what you want them to when you haven’t practiced.”  
She smiled lovingly at all of us, snd handed the book to Benny. Benny stared at his grandma before hesitantly flipping through the book, a look of shock still evident on his face. 

Jane asked if she was a witch. Which, if she was, was the wrong thing to ask. “Oh goodness no! I’m not a witch honey. I’m an earth priestess. Very different and much more fun.” She made a little paper drawing dance, which was really cool. It even hummed it’s own little tune. 

Benny stood there, baffled as his grandma turned back to him.   
“How?” He questioned, his eyebrows furrowed.   
“I didn’t wanna tell you before you were ready. Thought it might freak you out. But theres a reason that you’re drawn to the unexplainable. You have the makings of a first rate spell master.” A smug look crossed Benny’s face as he glanced at me.   
“And Ethan here, he’s a seer. That’s his path.”  
“Mia here is also a earth priestess. It’ll take some time to learn though.” 

“I’m the spell master.” Benny oh-so humbly bragged.  
“I’m gonna make the mona lisa dance!” I exclaimed. Benny smiled at me and chuckled.   
“Wait, what? A seer?” Ethan asked, still confused.   
“Well you get visions, don’t you? They’re supposed to start around puberty.”  
“Grandma!” Benny exclaimed, with a smile on his face.   
“Oh okay. Here, take my keys.” She handed them to Sarah, while Ethan smiled to himself. “And remember, evil is always at a disadvantage. The earth is good. You’re fighting on the right side.”  
“All right, shall we?”  
“And if you scratch my car, I’ll turn you into a toad!” She yelled sternly.   
I smiled and waved, and Ethan chuckled as we all headed out the door. 

We piled into the car, Benny hinting that Ethan should sit in front with Sarah, as we all shoved our stuff in the back seat, and the trunk. 

“I think the cublie animus works as some kind of soul vacuum. Jesse will try to capture 219 souls tonight. Then somehow trade them to bring back his followers.” Ethan explained.

“Ugh, ‘soul for soul’. It’s so evil!” Sarah said, clearly frustrated. “I can’t believe my first kiss was with him.”

Ethan awkwardly looked away, “he was your first kiss? But you’re 17! I mean, you’re so pretty, I mean-.” He was jealous. 

Me and Benny exchanged glances, both of us feeling bad for laugh at Ethan. 

Benny spoke up, “grandma failed to mention that this book isn’t even in English.” He sighed. 

“I think it’s in Latin, buddy. Just pronounce stuff as you see it.” He nodded and threw his head back, smiling. 

 

We reached the theater pretty quick, and decided to pull to the back so we didn’t get recognized by the security guard they had on watch. 

“Hey, guys! I found a spell that makes all the vampires vanish?”

“Benny I wouldn’t try that...” I warned, looking over his shoulder to see the book. 

He started reciting the spell, and the look disappeared. Ethan groaned and sarah rolled her eyes. “I told ya so Benny bean.”   
I wasn’t sure where that came from. I felt kinda bad. We might die now because magic boy failed us. 

Me and Benny made our way to the snack counter, while all the Duskers shoved themselves into theatre to get a seat.   
“Hi! Do you want anything?”   
“Nah... actually,” he turned to look at the countergirl, “what the heck. Get me an extra large jumbo bucket of popcorn, with extra salt, extra butter, and extra popcorn. Life’s short right?” He laughed and smiled at her. I rolled my eyes. Disgusting. He looked at me. “Plan B’s ready.” I nodded, a little pissed off. I’m not sure why, but it gave me a pit in my stomach. 

We heard screaming, snd we turned our heads towards the screening part of the theater and immediately vampires and Duskers started running out. 3 vampires crowded us, and we stared swinging with our sabers.   
“Evil you are, toast you shall be!” Benny chuckled, swinging at the vampires.

He turned to the counter girl, “use the force, vintage Star Wars T-shirt. That is so hot. He dropped his saber and they kissed over the counter. “Fucking disgusting. Let’s go.” I hit his arm as hard as I could, and threw his saber at him, and hesitatly followed him into the theatre as he ran off. Apperantly he was confused as to why I hit him. 

We ran to a side room, behind the screen? And Benny immediately ran into Jesse’s curly haired minion, screaming, “FREEDOM!!” And he got hit, really hard. Like, passed our hard. 

“A brave geek is still just a geek.” I spit in his hair, but he didn’t noice. I was fine with that. I ran over to Benny, making sure he stayed awake. “Hey, Benny. Stay with me buddy.” I slapped him a little, not too hard though. He jerked awake as soon as the sprinklers went off. 

I helped Ethan lift him off the ground, and I grabbed our things while he carried Benny out to the car. He wasn’t too heavy, but not something I could run and carry. 

 

“Tell grandma to answer the phone.” Benny told us, as we all speed walked out to the car. “Stay with me, B.” 

Ethan set Benny up against me and the car, and Benny put his arm around me. I resisted any passive aggressive urge to push it off. 

“Alright, we have to hurry. The eclipse is in 8 minutes. And we have to find Jesse.” 

I got in the car, while Ethan guided Benny into the car, and he laid on my lap. Laughing way too much for a normal person for the first few minutes.   
“Ethan, where’s Sarah?”   
“She says she’s too weak. She’s staying here.” 

We started driving immediately after Ethan got into the car.   
“Guys, Jesse must be taking the nest of souls to where his followers were buried. Okay, where is that?” 

“Yep, a kissed a girl at the snack bar. She reminded me of Mia.” He giggled for a minute, wiggling around. Then wincing in pain. 

“Ethan, didn’t it say something close to that in the prophecy about it being an orchard?” 

“Oh, oh, yeah! Wait, that tree from my visions, I know that tree.”  
We pulled into the Morgan’s driveway, “Mia, stay here with Benny while I call his grandma to come get him.”  
I nodded, knowing I was gonna get out as soon as he walked to the back of the house. 

I rushed out of the car, seeing Benny’s grandma in the driveay.   
“Mia, here, go, cast a stunner spell from Benny’s book. Go to Ethan’s window.” 

She gave me the book, and as soon I made my way upstairs, I saw Benny run and fall. What an idiot. God, he’s so cute. But Jesse had grabbed Sarah by the neck, and I tried my best to pronounce my first spell, “alma, alphras, alnok, gatran.” I flicked my wrist, and a bolt of purple lightning struck Jesse. Wow, that’s was wicked! 

Sarah took cover behind Ethan, and he opened the box, letting all the souls escape and shoot through Jesse. He let out an agonizing scream that I could hear as I ran downstairs and out the door to meet up with Sarah, Ethan and Benny. 

“Wow.” We all stood there for a minute. 

***

We all met up outside our houses at school, and Sarah said she’d meet us on the way there. We heard Principle Hicks talking about faulty 3D glasses.  
“Who’s gullible enough to believe faulty 3D glasses?” I chuckled, “these are Dusker’s remember?” 

“Besides, the town is safe, Jesse rejoined his flock, everything’s good, right?” Benny looked at Ethan, then threw his arm around me and smiled. It felt weird now that I’ve seen him kiss that counter girl. But I’ll get over it. Besides, I have 3 new best friends who care about me, and we have cool adventures and stuff we get to go on.


	7. Lawn of the undead

"Think about it guys! Anything we want. Cash, cars, candy." Benny told us enthusiastically.

"So you only use magic for things that start with C?" Ethan chuckled.

"Once we were lonely highschool noobs. Now we're vampire killing, spell casting rock stars!" 

"Actually," I chimed in, "Ethan's a seer. And rock stars play electric guitar sing. None of us do that." 

"Either way, the world is our oyster!" Benny smiled at us, winking at me. 

"Have you actually ever had oysters? Not something you wanna swallow. More like something you cough up." Ethan looked at me and Benny, with a disgusted face.

"Thank, E." I gave him a similar look back, "great image to start the day."

Benny's gaze stayed on a blonde girl, Della, I think. "There's the image I need. I know you're the 'seer-er' and all, but I can see her with me." I rolled my eyes as Benny turned to me, "ya jealous babes?" He chuckled and magicked up some pink flowers. "Wish me luck." He sauntered over. 

"You know he's probably doing that to make you jealous." Ethan gave me a sympathetic smile. "I don't care what he does" I shrugged, a little passive aggressively. 

Sarah cheerfully came over, "Can I borrow 20 dollars, friend? It's for a good cause." We all turned to look at Benny, "awesome news. Debbie's dog died!" 

I scoffed, "and that's good news? Her name's Della, by the way." 

Benny shrugged and Sarah shook her head, "see ya guys later!" She smiled at me and Ethan. 

We turned back to Benny, "she said she loved my flowers, then she said she'd do anything to bring her dog back! Anything." He looked at us suggesting his point. We didn't get it. 

"What if someone magically brought her dog back? Can you imagine how grateful she'd be?" He looked at us this this would be a great decision. 

"Benny, you can not do that. You can't."  
"I have to agree with Mia here. Life just got back to normal! You can NOT bring Della's dead dog back to life." 

"Won't know until we try, right?" He winked and quickly walked away from us.   
"If Harry Potter were here he'd smack you around!" Ethan tried to make sure Benny heard him, while not alerting anyone else. It didn't work. I shook my head as Ethan and I went our separate ways. 

Ethan invited me over after school, to try and talk Benny out of the dead dog ordeal. Of course I accepted. I looked forward to it throughout all my classes. And the realization hit me while I walked home. I liked Benny. I really do. But that can't be the only reason I'm trying to stop him for bringing a dead dog back to life, right? It can't just be me being jealous. I mean, it's stupid! It's a dead body. 

I sighed as I made my way up to Ethan's room, slightly conflicted. I walked in and the first thing I heard was, "maybe you should just conjure up a bracelet for this girl?" 

"E's right, Ben. I mean reanimating a dog? Total overkill."

He looked at me, surprised for a secound before giving me and Ethan a look, "no, it's underkill. Because the dog would be un-killed. Duh." He looked at us knowingly, and turned back to the computer. 

I shook my head and rested my arms on their shoulders, leaning in to look at the computer. 

"You don't even know how to reanimate a dead body."   
"Right, but I do know where to find the answers. Grandma's secret shelf." He smirked.   
"Benny! It's secret for a reason!" I looked at him with wide eyes   
"God, my bad feeling just got 10% more bad." Ethan shuttered. 

We heard a knock and we all turned around, "hey guys. Dinner's almost ready." She smiled and looked at Ethan.   
"What's that, aroma?" Ethan asked, politely. 

Benny chuckled, "did Jane melt one of her dolls again?" Ethan smacked his leg and Ethan's Mom awkwardly chuckled. I smacked him on the back of the head and he furrowed his brows. "Actually, Ethan's dad is having a very, very important client over for dinner this Friday. So, I'm testing recipes from T.V's Greatest Chefs. And this is kelp and kimshi ratatouille. Wanna try a sample?" 

"Mmm. Yum, we uh, have to go." Benny held his stomach as he reached and grabbed his bag, and my hand, and walked us out of Ethan's room and out the door. 

We quickly made our way down the stairs, and out the door. As soon as it closed behind us, Benny shuttered. I felt him shaking through my hand that he was still holding, and he made a gagging noise. "She's such a sweet lady." "I know Benn, she just isn't the uh, greatest cook." I smiled sympathetically as we started our walk to my house. Because he always walks me home. 

                                  ***  
        Ethan just texted me.

EeEeEthan: Hey, Benny just had me use a vision to find the right potion. He's going to Della's now. Meet me in front of my house, I'll have Rory fly us there.

I was super unsure, as I was a bit heavier set. Would he even be able to pick me up? What if they laughed at me because I was too heavy? He's a vampire. I'm pretty sure they have super strength. God I hope so. 

Mia: Alright, I'll be over soon. 

 

It didn't take me long to arrive outside of Ethan's house. Whitechapel was a small town, and our "group" lived reasonably close together. 

I saw Ethan hand Rory a card, and then say, "ugh, Look, Benny's gone to Della's and we don't know where she lives. Do you?" 

"No, but I know a sure way to find out." He smiled at us and quickly forced Ethan on his back while he wrapped his arms around my waist. "Air Rory!" He yelled as he flew off the ground. 

Within a few minutes, we reached a backyard with a small garden and a cardboard grave. Rory dropped Ethan on Benny's legs and got closer to the ground as he let me go. "Thanks Rorster!" "Anytime sweetness!" 

Benny glared at him, then at Ethan. "Dude, do not sneak up on a guy who's awakening the dead." 

"Come on Benn, let's go before you do something more stupid." I tried giving him puppy eyes, and he closed his eyes tightly. 

"I think your grandma was right, it's not good to mess with the forces of life and death."

"Don't worry, the potion didnt work anyway. Your vision must've been wrong."   
"My visions are never wrong." 

Ethan got up, and Benny grumpily followed. He looked at me and threw his head back, patting his lap, "you can sit on my lap, Mia. I'm too lazy to get up." 

"Guys, did you hear that?" Benny's head shot up as we heard more whimpering. "It's alive!!" 

I winced and gave him a stern slap on the shoulder, "Shh, Benny." 

I stood behind them as Benny and Ethan dug Puffles out of his "grave." And rolled my eyes as Benny stupidly said, "that is the sweet sound of Benny scoring a date with Stella!" 

"Okay," Ethan coaxed, "he's alive. Now let's go before someone sees us."    
"I wanna surprise her at school tomorrow." He wrapped Puffles in the big blanket, and  we all ran as we saw a yellow fluorescent light start shining from inside.

                                    ***

On our walk home, Benny managed to convince Ethan to hold Puffles in his garage for the night. I can't believe he gave into Benny's peer pressure. 

Ethan and Benny split up when we passed Ethan's house, and Benny continued walking with me. "You know you don't have to walk me home, right?" Wow, harsher that I intended it to be. "I know I don't HAVE to. But I want to. Do you not want me to?" "It's not that." "What id it then?" 

"I just feel like it's weird for you to walk me home when you're lusting after Della."   
"I mean, me and you are just friends, so why is it weird?" He stopped and gave me a look. "Just forget it man." I shrugged as we continued our walk home. 

He left without a hug that night, which was weird. I think I just messed our friendship up because I couldn't let him be happy over a girl. 

***

I stayed up late, and then overslept. I looked horrible. Leggings and a hoodie. My go to. It was comfy but embarrassing. As I made my way to my locker, I saw Ethan and Sarah talking, and I was gonna go say hi, until I heard screaming. Della’s dog jumped up and down at her, with glaring red eyes and it’s teeth barred, while Benny didn’t know what to do. Della ran from the dog and Benny followed, stopping between me and Sarah to complain. “She didn’t even say thank you!” He flung his arms down dramatically and started running again. 

I followed Sarah and Ethan to class. “Hey, what is up?” Rory smiled and waved his bandaged hand at us.   
“What happened Rorster?” I smiled sympathetically.   
“Weirdest thing. Last night, I went out for a crunchy critter snack, but this time, the snack fought back. I think it was possessed.” Me and Sarah chuckled, “You don’t need bandages. Vampires can heal themselves. Remember?” She explained.  
I giggled to myself when he pulled off the bandages, “fingers grow back fast! Sweet! High five!” He had a little let down look on his face when Sarah ignored him, so I complied with his high-five.

Sarah looked at Ethan, “did you guys do what I think you guys did?”   
Ethan nervously smiled, “raise dead animals from the grave to get a girl’s attention?” “Unbelievable.” Sarah rolled her eyes and walked off, crossing her arms. 

I heard Della screaming for Benny and I watched students run through the calls, 

Hello students, due to recent rabid animal attacks, we ask you to return to you homes and remain indoors. As of now, all classes are cancelled until further notice. 

Oh my god. Benny and Ethan heavily encouraged me to run with them. By that, I mean Benny grabbed my hand and yanked my with him and Ethan while they ran. We ran into Ethan’s house, slamming the door shut and leaning on it. 

“Was it just me or did that squirrel look about ready to our eyeballs?”

“Guys,” I said hesitantly, “I think it’s time to call in some magical backup.”   
“What? N-no!” Benny stuttered, “if grandma finds out who knows what she’ll do to me. Listen, if the potion did cause this-“ “and we know it did” i chimed in. He continued, “then it’ll probably run out of gas.”   
I sighed, “Benny, magic doesn’t run out of gas.”   
He sat back on the couch, not believing me. “I’m sure the worst is over.” 

I sat in the kitchen until I heard yelling.

“That's Tiberius!”  
“No!”  
“Yeah!”  
“But that's crazy.”  
“He ran away when you were, like, 8.”  
“You and I need have to talk with your grandmaâ�� now.”

“C-couldn't we just email her? I mean Ah! Hi, Grandma!”  
I quickly got up and popped my head in the living room, “Hi Evelynn!” She turned to me and smiled, “Hello dear.” And turned back to Benny and Ethan with her arms crosses.   
“Something you twits want to tell me?”   
I got up and smiled while I listened to her scold Benny and Ethan on our way to his house. 

“First we brew enough anti-potion to douse all those demon critters you created.” She stirred the steaming pot. 

“All I did was spill a few drops where the dog was buried!” Benny tried to reason.   
“A few drops is far too much!”  
“But why are they so evil?” You flashed Benny a knowing look.   
“You reanimated the bodies but the souls had moved on.  
And a body with no soul is a demon's playground.”   
“Even if this brew works, how are we going to track down all the undead critters?” Ethan questioned.  
My eyes widened, “magic flute! My favorite!”   
“Right. Here.” Evelynn chuckled at my happiness, and continued stirring. “Once the demons hear this enchanted flute, they'll come running, but you better be ready.”  
“Don't worry, Grandma.” Benny stood up and posed. “I will not fail you!”   
“Not you, Einstein.l   
“I need you and Mia here to help me with this brew. Ethan can do it.  
Start at the site of the spill, and then work your way back here.”   
“Wait,�� tonight's my dad's dinner with his new client. Mom will kill me if I miss it.” 

“Well, if he can't do it, and I can't do it, and Mia can’t do it, then who's gonna play the stupid magic flute?”   
“Benny it’s a treasure!” I dramatically said, loudly. 

“What's your little blond friend up to? “ “ “She's right.” I smiled. 

“This sounds like a job for,” we smiled smiled and in unison, we enthusiastically said, “vampire Rory!” 

I got on to texting Rory, because I know neither of the boys would do it. 

 

***  
Benny knocked on my door later that night, smiling, all geared up with water guns filled with anti-potion, and refills strapped to his chest. He handed me the bigger gun. “Are you scared?” He raised a brow at me. 

“A little. I mean. There’s always a chance you could get hurt. Or Ethan. Anyway. And magic isn’t able to fix everything.” He nodded in understanding. “I’m a little scared too. But I’llprotect you.” He winked at me as we continued walking.

Benny barged into the door just like he did the first day we met. We walked into the kitchen to see Sarah in a waiter’s uniform, and Ethan in a sweater vest. 

“Alright,” he looked at Ethan and Sarah, and checked to make sure I was behind him, “we are locked and loaded with anti-potion.”   
I chimed in, “and Rory’s on his way.”   
Ethan clapped his hands together, “when we brings the critters back, we’ll take position in the backyard and let ‘em have it.”

“All right, and SweaterVest, can you tell the waitress I'll have a decaf triple mocha latteâ�� no foam?” Benny chuckled as Sarah glared at him. And he turned to me, “what’ll you get babe?” I ignored him and shook my head, not paying attention to how nice that comment felt. 

“Uh Ethan, I need you to come and meet our guests. Sarah, could you bring out the hors d'oeuvres now, please?” Ethan’s mom dragged him away.  
“Yes ma'am!”   
“Everybody, this is our son Ethan.”  
“Hi.” Ethan said awkardly.   
“Della and I have met kinda.” Ethan smiled.   
Benny followed me and Ethan into the door way.   
“Hey, Della. Did the dog come back?” I slapped Benny arm, and Della started crying.   
“She's been worked up all week. Every dog she sees is Puffles.” Della’s dad said, a little embarrassed.   
“Oh, I'm so sorry! That's so sad.” Ethan’s Mom sympathized with her.   
I walked back into the kitchen to help Sarah and as if on cue, Rory started his flute playing.  
Ethan came into the kitchen, seeing Rory. “Rory, what'd you do? How come I can still hear the music?”   
“I had an inspiration! Why shred my primo lips when I could just record the tune and play it back on a loop? No flute required!” 

“So where's the player?” I questioned him with raised eyebrows.   
“I landed on the roof to look for you guys, and then there was this psycho squirrel, and I kinda dropped it down the chimney.” He shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal.   
“ What? The chimney?” Ethan started freaking out, and I patted his back.

Rory tried to calm him down. “Hey, relax.  
I know a way to get it back.  
When Santa comes-“ “Rory, shut up! You know the rules about plans involving Santa.” Benny looked at him with pursed lips. 

“So now that music's in the house, which means... they’re uh, gonna come into the house.” I sighed, but someone needed to say it.   
I stayed in the kitchen while Benny readied his gun and I did too. I walked to the doorway to watch after Della screamed and as soon as I turned around, there were animals everywhere. Raccoons on the tables, and other small animals crowded the kitchen. I squirted anything close to me with my gun, and made my way over to Benny. It wasn’t because I liked him, but we could cover more ground this way. That’s a lie. I do like him, and I always worry about him getting hurt.   
We shot at tables and the floor and the cabinets. Animals were everywhere. 

I turned around when I felt something soft and furry touch my neck, and I saw Benny with a rabbit on his back. I grabbed the first thing I could think of, which was a frying pan, and knocked it off. “Hey, what was that for!?”  
“A little hair on your back.” I chucked at my own joke, shooting the rabbit I knocked off his back. 

Ethan ran in, “my mom told me to get the parmesan.” He open the cabinet and screamed, and we all turned to see Puffles. Our old friend. He bit Ethan, and Ethan hit him against the counter. Sarah helped Ethan pin Puffles into the cabinet while I shot him. The collar landed into the sauce. Disgusting. I gagged a little. 

Ethan’s mom raced in. “Sarah, I’m gonna need the sauce right now, okay?” He ran after her and grabbed the sauce, and they played tug-of-war for a minute, until Della ran in and they basically threw it at her. “Ahh! Puffles!” She looked at all of us with wide eyes. 

Benny cringed, “yeah that’s him... kinda.” 

Della ran out crying. “Della, wait, I can explain! Not right now but I’ll think of something.” He muttered to himself before he ran off after her, looking worriedly at Ethan and his mom. 

I rolled my eyes and started cleaning up the kitchen. I picked up apples and organized the counters while Ethan explained the situation to his mom, somehow, and Sarah wiped off anything she could. “Hey, Mia. I think I’ll have everything from here. You can go home now if you want.” She smiled at me. 

“Thanks Sarah. I’ll see you at school Monday, yeah?” I picked up a few more things off the ground and headed out. 

I sighed as I closed the door behind me. It was weird not having Benny walk me home. And it was weirder that I knew he was out trying to impress some girl he’s almost never talked to. Why doesn’t he go for someone not based on looks? Annoying. I shook my head and passed Benny’s house, wondering if I should knock on the door. I decided against it, since I knew he probably wouldn’t be home. Footsteps very quickly came up from behind me, really fast? I whipped my head around as I saw Benny slide past me, and then turn back to me, panting. 

“Hey! Ethan said you were walking home. I thought you’d be leaving later. You should’ve told me!” He playfully hit my arm and we started walking. 

“Sorry, thought you were too busy trying to smooch Della.” 

“I would drop any girl in the world for you! Or Ethan. My best friends. I mean, it’d be weird if we went through all we did last week, and we weren’t friends.” He shrugged and widened his eyes quickly, “oh and what do you have against Della anyway? Has something happened between you guys?” He raised an eyebrow at me. 

“I guess you could say that. I mean, she’s probably nice. I just don’t think she’s the right girl for you, Benny. But if she actually would make you happy, I say go for it.” I flashed him a bright smile. 

“She isn’t. You’re probably right. I wish I could find a girl who actually likes me and doesn’t play hard-to-get. Or like, likes the same stuff I do.” He shrugged, trailing off his sentence. 

“Benny, I know someone who likes you. A lot. She thinks you’re amazing. But you flirt with all these girls so she doesn’t even try to date you because she’s pretty sure all you’d do is flirt with other girls. Anyway, maybe just try being friends with a girl first before pushing yourself into a relationship with someone you don’t know.” 

He shrugged again and sighed, “wait, you’re right, but who likes me?” 

“Can’t say, lips are sealed and the key has been thrown.” I made a zipping motion with my fingers and acted like I threw a key over my shoulder.   
After a few more back and fourths, he gave up, and we reached my house. 

“Have a good night, Mia.” He smiled at me.  
“Goodnight Bens.” I smiled back and turned to walk inside.

“Hey, uh, can I have a hug this time?” Wait, so he cared that I didn’t hug him last night? Hm. Wow that makes me feel special. 

I smiled brightly at him and wrapped my arms around him tightly. He nuzzled his face into my hair for a second and quickly let go, “uh, i’ll see you around. Okay?” His face looked bright red as he turned away from me. “Goodnight Benny!”


	8. Three cheers for Evil

“Okay so Thor would totally beat Iron Man in a fight. He harness’s the power of lighting!” I explained. 

“Errr- I mean, maybe. But Iron Man is made of Iron. Doesn’t lightening like, not mess with metal?” Benny asked, a little confused. 

We all walked until we saw Sarah and Erica. And then we heard Erica say, “Come on! Who’d miss just one?” She winked and flashed her fangs, and walked away to the sign up table. 

“I will!” Benny whined, huffing.   
I rolled my eyes.

Ethan pursed his lips for a minute, “Isn’t this kind of like letting Magneto join the X-Men?” 

Sarah furrowed her brow, “I’ll assume that’s Geek-speak for a fox in the henhouse thing? Anyway, if you have any ideas on how I’m supposed to stop her, I’m all ears.” 

Benny cleared his throat, looking at the sign up table. Ethan smiled sympathetically at Sarah. 

“No no no, there HAS to be another way.” Sarah glanced at the sign-up table and turned around to see Benny and Ethan doing a little dance.

She looked at me, “are you gonna help me?” 

“I uh, probably cant fit into the uniforms.”   
“What? I’m sure they have plus size ones. Or your boyfriend or you can make it a bit bigger.” She tried to reason, a pleading smile on her face. 

“I really don’t want to.”   
“Please?” I reluctantly agreed. Me and Sarah aren’t very close, but I’ve always wanted us to be friends. 

We went to the sign up table, and Sarah got her uniform immediately. The coach had to run in the gym to get one in my size. Stephanie smirked at me, and knocked some books out of another girl’s hands. 

The coach came back with my uniform, which looked really small. I reluctantly followed Sarah to the bathroom to change.

The uniform was a little small on me. And I had to go out and ask Benny to use the spell book for a minute. I was able to make it bigger, but it was still tight around my bust. Sarah walked out before me, and I gave her the spell book to hand back to Benny while I put my uniform on. It felt really flattering, but what if Benny made fun of me right to my face? 

Outside the locker room

Sarah walked out the door, “cowabunga!”   
“Don’t say anything! She whisper-shouted, “and, be nice to Mia. Please. She’s already embarrassed enough.”   
“I swear on my Jedi honor. Plus she’ll probably look hot.” Benny put his hand over his heart. 

***

I looked in the mirror, and shrugged. Live to the fullest, right? Who cares if some stupidly cute boy doesnt like how I look. 

I walked out of the locked room with my hands on my hips. Confidence is key, right. 

Benny’s face flushed for a second. “You look, uh, nice!” He eyed me up and down. 

“Is that your way of making fun of me?” I sneered. 

He shook his head furiously. “No! Absolutely not. It’d just be weird if I called one of my best friends hot.”

I smirked at him, stepping a little closer, “so you think I’m hot? Good. Me too.” 

“Okay girls.” Stephanie appeared at the gym door, smirking. “Let’s see what you’ve got.” 

Me and Sarah glanced at each other, and started walking away. I paused for a second and ran back to Benny. “Wish me luck Bens!” I smiled at him and ran back to Sarah.

After a few minutes of hopping around and kicking, Benny and Ethan walked into the gym. But then as fast as they walked in, they were kicked back out, holding their crotches in pain.  
After a few more minutes worth of jumping around, and shaking our uh, assets, we saw two new girls(?) walk into the gym. They stood there for a minute, “Betty, Veronica, care to join us?” Stephanie snapped, annoyed. 

“Oh, we care.” Betty giggled and they flipped their hair and joined our line. They popped right next to Sarah and me.   
“Now form up girls. I wanna hear you shout.” We all put our hands in, and Veronica froze for a minute. “We’re devil girls and we’ll knock you out!” We all yelled, most of us ignoring Veronica’s blank state. 

We all giggled, “okay, now hit the shower, rookies.” She gave Veronica and Betty a petty look, “some of you new recruits are rank.” Then quickly glanced at me before all of us started walking to the showers. 

As I opened the door, I looked behind me and saw Ethan and Benny following. What pervs. I stayed near the door and waited for them to walk in. 

“Uh, e... excuse me. I was... I just wanted to fix my hair. The humidity just makes it-“ 

“Oh my god, Benny. Stop.” I giggled a little at him. “I can’t believe you—“ 

Ethan stopped me, “no, listen, listen. You can’t tell anyone. It’s important. I just had a terrible vision.”  
“Me too!” I exclaimed. “Look, I can handle Erica, go practice your cheers and have a cold shower.” 

Benny got a mischievous smile on his face. “If you insist.”   
“At home!” I lightly pushed her flat chest towards the door. 

***

“Guys, I never knew cheer routines could be so tricky!” Benny asked, holding his lunchtray. “Am I rotating my hips too late before I pop,” he flung his shoulders forward. “And lock?” And then backward. 

I chuckled at them. Until Ethan tried to explain it with full seriousness. “You know, I didnt wanna throw you off, but you have to rotate from the core, see?” 

I audibly laughed, embarrassing Ethan before he shook his head. “What am I saying?” 

“There’s a bright red guy over there.” I muttered, a little confused. 

“What’s up! My main men! And my lovely lady.” Rory winked at me. I shook my head and watched as Benny glared at Rory then raised his eyebrows.   
“Rory, you’re the mascot?” Ethan questioned. “Of course! Best way to hang with all the hot cheerleading chicks. And there’s this one hottie mclovely, name’s Betty. So into me!” 

Benny looked down a little, embarrassed, “yeah, I uh, doubt that dude.” His face crinkled in disgust.   
Ethan smirked, “what about Veronica?”   
“She’s okay.”  
“Just Okay?”  
“Eh. Her legs are kind of bandy.”  
“But Betty, I just want to sink my fangs-“   
I cringed a little until Benny jumped, “yeah, we get it.” 

I shook my head and watched all the cheerleader go up to the lunch line, and the lunch lady said something to Stephanie, and her fingers smashed into the register. She smirked at the lunch lady and walked away. 

We all exchanged weird looks as Sarah walked up to us. “Ugh! Hanging out with those girls makes me want to stake myself through the heart.” Erica came over and dragged her away. I chuckled a little. 

***

We all got into formation. Stephanie bringing our arms up one by one. “The Star is the most important position in the pep rally tomorrow. It has to be perfect if we’re going to get enough team spirit.” She took a deep breath, “okay. I wanna hear you shout. 

We started our routine, “We’re forces of nature that’s what makes a star, we may look like girls but that’s not all we are!” We all chanted in unison. “Great cheer.” Stephanie smiled, “let’s hit the mall.” Sarah sighed while we watched Stephanie walk away, “I can’t believe I signed up for this.”  
“Me either,” I sympathized, “and why would you guys, voluntarily?” I looked over to where Ethan was looking, and saw cheerleaders, bent over. “Nevermind.” I rolled my eyes. 

“Okay, so where to next?” Sarah looked at Erica, “straight home?”   
Erica smirked, “I think I’m gonna grab a bite.” Me and Sarah immediately ran after her, worried about her intentions. 

We lost her for a minute until we saw a bright flash of purple light. And then I don’t remember what happened. 

 

3rd person POV  
——————————————————  
At the Morgan’s house, Ethan and Benny sat comfortably. “Benny, are sure its the cheers making you tingle?” Ethan asked, “maybe it’s gas?” 

Benny shook his head, a little agitated that Ethan didn’t believe him. “My tingles are never wrong. Look. Forces of nature: earth, air, fire, water. That’s what makes a star. Oh man. E, this isn’t some kind of chick cheer,” he looked at Ethan worriedly. “I think this is some kind of incantation.” 

Ethan furrowed his brow and repeated, “forces of nature. That’s what mskes a star. We may look like girls...”

They looked at each other and realization hit them in unison. “But that’s not all we are.”   
“So Stephanie doesn’t just act like a witch...”   
“She is one.” Benny finished for him.   
“Wait, so that vision I had in the gym it wasn’t Erica’s, it was Stephanie’s. And tomorrow’s rally has nothing to do with team Spirit.”  
“She’s after the human spirts of the whole school! We have to save Mia. And uh, Sarah.”  
Just then, Ethan received a text from Mia. 

Mia: Hey hey!! Me and the squad are coming to see you and Betty! Talk soon xoxo! :)  
Also I’m spending the night lol! So excited

“She says she’s bringing the whole squad to see Betty and Veronica.” Ethan nervously explained.

They got up and hopped into their cheer uniforms, and wigs, and waited for the doorbell to ring. 

***   
Betty and Veronica made their way downstairs, and hesitantly walked into the living room. “Boys are so funny!” They heard one girl say. Stephanie smiled at them as they walked in, “oh, there you are! Don’t be shy girls! Join the fun! The spirt squad is now in session.” Stephanie waved her arms and they all giggled.

Sarah and Mia happily ran up to them, with a bigger spring in their step than usual.   
“Hi gals!” Sarah smiled. Mia gasped, “nice hair! Oh my gosh, cheerleader sleepovers are so fun. Later on, we’re going to give each other Mani-peti’s!” Betty giggled along with them as they excitedly jumped around. “And make sundaes? And do each other’s hair?”   
Veronica lightly slapped her on the arm. “Betty!”   
Sarah smiled brightly, “yes! We need sundaes now!”   
“What are you guys doing? You know Stephanie’s a witch, right?” Ethan explained.   
Mia shrugged, “I know she seems like a witch because she acts like a witch but she’s actually really sweet! Ya know, as long as you’re not ugly.” She exchanged girly looks with Sarah and they started giggling to each other. They bounced over to their previous seats excitedly. 

Veronica turned to Betty, “I think they’re under Stephanie’s spell. They’re acting like total, girls!”   
“I miss nerdy Mia.” Benny pouted. 

They turned their heads back to the girls, “let’s have a pillow fight!” Sarah and Mia screamed, jumping up and down while throwing the couch pillows at one another. 

Betty and Veronica stood, shell shocked at all the pretty cheerleaders in the living room. “Wasn’t there something we were supposed to be doing?” Betty muttered.

“Yeah... the whole school might die tomorrow if we don’t stop the cheerleaders.” 

“Tomorrow is hours away.” Betty tried to convince.   
“This is literally the coolest moment of my life.” Veronica stated happily.   
They shot each other a knowing look and yelled, “pillow fight!” And joined in on the fun. 

After a while, all the girls settled down and brought out nail polish snd face masks. Stephanie gently applied her own mask, and then Samantha’s, and Mia’s.   
“Who’s getting their nails done first?”  
Mia smiled excitedly, “I volunteer!”   
“Okay, girls. Lets play truth or date.”   
“Okay. Fun! Sarah, you first. Truth or dare?” Mia smirked, hoping Sam picked a good question to ask Sarah. “What’s your biggest secret?” “I have a crush on nerd.” We all giggled at her and she laughed with us, Betty and Veronica getting ready to get their nailed painted. 

“Mia! Your turn. Truth or dare?” Sarah giggled with her as she picked truth, her face heating up at the question. “Who’s your best friend? And who’s your crush?”

“Uh- Benny’s my best friend! I think he’s my crush too.” Mia giggled dreamily. 

‘No fucking way’ Benny thought. ‘This isn’t real. She’s under a spell. Wow.’   
Mi started again, “okay, Jasmine! Truth or dare!” “Dare!” “Let me text a guy on your phone.” Mia giggled as she was handed the phone. 

 

*****

“Benny, Benny wake up.” Ethan threw a pillow at him.   
“Ethan, shut up! Mia’s sleeping.” Benny quickly sat up, “dude! You’ve got stuff all over your face!” He whisper-shouted, a little concerned. 

Ethan took a look at him and his eyes widened. “You do too!”  
“Dude your nails are red!” Ethan urgently pointed at Benny. “Youre are pink! I feel so violated...” 

“You guys have such deep morning voices!” Mia giggled at them. “What time is it?” 

Ethan and Benny quickly exchanged glances and upped the octave of their voices. “It’s 10:37.” ‘Betty’ smiled at her. 

“Oh! I’ve gotta go. I was supposed to be out of here by 10. Whoops.” She giggled and got up quickly, running to the bathroom to change. 

“Those cheerleaders must me stopped.”   
“Agreed. Who knows what they’ll paint pink next!”   
“Okay, lots of these old spells Channel energy with the five points of a pentagram. One for each of the elements.”  
“Stephanie said she needed 5 cheerleaders. She’s using our formation to sap human spirits.” Ethan’s eyes widened at the realization. 

“Pentagram’s are never good. Let’s hope a reversal spell will be enough to block the flow of energy.”

Mia barged into the room. “Hey guys! I’m leaving. I’m see you at the rally tonight, hugs?” She smiled and Benny decided he couldn’t resist, and threw his arms around her tightly. She smiled and waved and skipped out of the room. Immediately after she left, they heard knocking at the door. They took their wigs off and threw them into desk drawers. Ethan threw the stickers off his face, “c-come in!” 

He and Benny turned to the door. “Grandma? What are you doing here?”  
She sauntered over, “I promise Jane some strength potion but I wanted to give you these.”   
She handed each of them a pom  
Pom.   
“Pom-poms?” Benny questioned.   
“Protection wands. For the big rally today, she clarified. “You think I didn’t hear those cheerleaders last night? Don’t be fooled boys, beneath those short skirts and pigtails, theres some serious black magic at work. Of course, not all cheerleaders are bad. Back in my day, I had the highest kick on the squad. We had one girl who was desperate to get on the team.  
She was consumed with bitterness.  
I wonder whatever happened to her.  
Well, you boys better get ready for your big day.” She smiled at them, and left.   
“Bye, Grandma.” Benny said, pursing his lips.   
“Thank...thank you.”  
“Thanks.” Ethan waved.  
Benny sighed.   
“Wow.” Ethan gasped.   
“What?”   
“Your grandma was hot.”  
“Are you trying to ruin the word "hot" for me forever?” Benny asked, disgusted.   
“Dude, look at this.”  
“I don't want to know how hot she was, okay?” He turned away.  
“No, no, the picture below it.” Ethan explained.   
“It's - Stephanie?!” Benny’s eyes widened. 

***  
Benny and Ethan sat in the lounge of school, in their cheer uniforms.   
“I don't think Stephanie and your grandma got along very well.”  
“Why?”   
“She signed your grandma's yearbook, "I'll get you all one day.  
Ps- Have the worst summer ever.”   
“That symbol...” he muttered, confused, “I've seen it before in my spell book. It's a trefoil knot, a symbol meaning immortality.”  
“That might explain why she's still 17... Okay, I am so loving your hot grandma with her magic pompoms right now.”   
“Dude! Don't talk about my grandma's pompoms like that.” Benny whined, once again disgusted. 

***  
All the cheerleaders met stood in a line at the back of the gym. As the music cued, they all jumped their way to the center, doing spins and waving pom poms. They put themselves into formation.

“The moment has come. This is it. Our finest hour. No stopping us now. You can’t resist or power. We’re forced of nature, that’s what makes a star.” They backed up and turned around, getting into the star formation. “We may look like girls but that’s not all we are!” The crowed cheered as we started again, staying in our star formation. 

“Garno virto, immortalis  
Garno virto, immortalis.   
Give up now ‘cause you’re gonna be beat. We are out for power and you’re in for defeat.”   
“Now Benny, now!” Ethan yelled.  
Benny looked at him and hesitantly started the ritual chant.   
“Subsistoris o lemi mark now  
Subsistoris o lemi mark now  
Subsistoris o lemi mark now” 

Stephanie looked at them with rage in her eyes, “Back off geeks! I’ve been waiting 15 years to bring the school down and no one is going to stop me now!” Benny winced. 

The girls contined chanting.  
“Garno virto, immortalis  
Garno virto, immortalis”   
Their spell overlapped with Benny and Ethan’s “Subsistoris o lemi mark now  
Subsistoris o lemi mark now”  
Stephanie began to rise off the floor as the light shut off, and the door were frozen shut. The students in the crowd fell over. Ghost like clouds rising from their bodies.

Benny turned to Ethan, “I don’t think it’s working. Maybe we’re saying it wrong.”   
“Step out of the pentagram.”  
“I can’t. I’m stuck!” Benny wiggled his fest.   
“Push grandma’s pom poms closer to Sarah!”   
“No, Mia. She’s a spell caster too!”  
Benny and Ethan grunted as they reached over, as far as they could to break the spell over her. She suddenly stopped chanting and looked around. “What happened?” She asked, confused.   
“Stephanie’s a witch. She sucking the souls out of the whole student body.” Ethan quickly explained. 

She shook her head and yelled, “succendam retro!” And they all were pushed back out of the circle. A little too forcefully. 

Stephanie fell to the ground, and Ethan and Benny stood besides her. The lights turned on and the students in the crowd awoke.   
Erica smiled. “Sweet. It’s like an all you can eat buffet.” We all gave her a disapproving look. “What? Like anyone is gonna miss her. She’s a total—“ she stopped. “She’s old!” Jasmine exclaimed, scooting away. 

Stephanie took a hard look at Benny’s grandma. “You! You ruined everything!”   
“Poor Stephanie. I remember how mean folks were to you back then.” Stephanie conjured up a knife but Evelynn quickly zapped it away. “What I forgot was just how much you deserved it.”  
“Three cheers for Grandma!“ Benny exclaimed.   
“I am so done with cheerleading,” Ethan mummered.   
They all threw down our pom poms in agreement.   
“Smart kids. All that jumping around is fun, but what you're left with is saggy pompoms.” The group of teens groaned in disgust, and slumped out of the gym, heading to lunch.  
“What if she put a hex on our sandwiches?” Ethan asked, cautious to eat the food that Stephanie gave them.   
“Okay, don't worry.Grandma blocked her powers. Now she's just a sad old lady in a hairnet.”   
“Who can still spit in your food.” Mia chuckled as she watch him throw the sandwiches away. 

***

“Hey, Rory. Sorry to hear your girlfriend moved away. But I did bump into her, and she asked me to give you this.” Benny smiled at him, trying to be nice. 

My dearest Rorykins, our time together was short, yet precious, like you.  
But somehow I sensed a darkness in you that I could never trust myself to resist.  
Be strong, my little devil.  
No matter what, we'll always have the gym hallway.  
Love, Betty.

“Down! Rory!” They all urgently yelled, pulling him back down to earth. Literally.


	9. Friday Night Frights

The small group of nerdy teens made their way through White Chapel High. Mia, had been too tired to participate in conversation, and Ethan was just annoyed. 

“He’s a huge, awesome robot. All he’d have to do is yank on the warp engine nacelles.” Rory tried to reason.

“Okay, that’s like saying a dude could fight a boat.” Benny argued. “Don’t you agree Mia.” 

She nodded her head and watched Rory walk away to his locker, separated from theirs.   
“Can’t we do this in a girl free-zone?” Ethan asked, glancing at Mia.   
“Oh, I’ll just leave then. Or am I not a girl to you?” Mia asked grumpily. They couldn’t tell if she was serious or not. 

Benny flung an arm around her, “Mia’s definitely a girl. One of the prettiest I’ve seen.” Mia lazily smiled and laid her head on his shoulder. “Thanks Benns.” 

Benny, Ethan, and Mia all grabbed what they needed from their lockers, and met Rory back up at the other corridor. “Hey Benny, wanna carry my books for me? Since you’re such a great friend?”   
“Absolutely not.” He smiled and took the books from her, and his face flushed when she gave him a side hug.

“He’s a robot in disguise,” Rory started again, “he just show up as a harmless truck.”   
“In space?” Benny turned to him, shaking his head.   
Rory sighed.   
The group of teens passed their school coach, mummering “his” and “hellos.”   
“Say goodbye kids.” He started down at a gold trophy, that Mia thought looked ages old. “Time to put this old relic into storage.” 

Ethan hesitantly asked, “Isn’t that, like, the only trophy this school has ever won?”

 

“Yes, but it, uh, it sends the wrong message, you know? Winning isn't everything. Yeah, sure, our teams come last in points, but, oh, boy, we come first in so many other important areas.” Mr.G smiled at the teens, not excited to put the trophy away.   
“Yeah, like point avoiding?” Benny tried to help the situation.   
“That is one sad trophy case.” Rory chuckled.   
“Here, can you hold that for a second?” Mr.G turned to Ethan. “Yeah, sure.”  
“What'd you do that for?” Benny turned to Rory, annoyed. Mia tapped his shoulder. “Benny, Rory didn’t do it. I don’t know what just happened but he didn’t” She thought she might be hallucinating. 

“Yeah. I-I guess. Who are you? Who are you calling nerds?” Ethan seemed to talk to himself. Which is fine, but he normall doesn’t do that, and his best friends started to worry. Benny and Rory seemed not to pay attention.   
“Why don't you transform and roll out, dumblebee?” Benny insulted.  
“Y-you're a warp ten butthead!” Mia gigged a little at their commentary, earning a smile from Benny.   
“Okay, point taken.  
So what do you want?” Mia listened in on Ethan’s small conversation with himself. And suddenly his pants dropped to his ankles and everyone started laughing. Sarah joined in, “Space theme, huh? I would have guessed Spiderman.” 

***

The group of teens met back up at lunchtime. Ethan flipped through a yearbook while Benny, Rory, and Mia watched him.   
“Here he is. Coach Ed. Says he was the gym teacher.” Ethan explained.   
“He's ancient. Like a mummy.” Rory chuckled.   
“Is he here right now?” Benny sandwich flew from his hand, “I'll take that as a yes.  
Jerk!” Mia got up to get Benny a new sandwich, little annoyed.   
“There must be some way to stop him or get him to move on.” Ethan sighed, “I’m gonna go to my locker. See you guys next period.” 

Just then, Mia came back with Benny’s sandwich. “Here you go, beanpole.” She chuckled and tossed it to him, then sat down next to him and laid her head down.   
“You’re really tired, aren’t you?” “I mean, kinda. It’s mostly boy troubles, no worries.” Benny’s heart fell to the pit of his stomach. ‘So everything from the sleepover wasn’t real. Awesome.’ “I know a ton about boys. If you ever need help, just tell me.” He smiled, knowing she couldn’t see it. And flung his arm around her, still eating his sandwich with one hand. “Thanks benns.” She smiled under her arms, chuckling to herself. 

 

“He jammed you in good! I may have to dislocate one of your shoulders - to get you out. Is that okay?” “No!” Ethan groaned at Rory as he tried to pull him out of the locker. 

After a few more seconds, Ethan was successfully pulled from the locker.   
“Come on, guys!” He eyed Mia and Benny. “Aren't there any spells to get rid of ghosts?”   
Benny turned to Mia, “wanna come over after school and help me find a good spell?” She nodded, leaning into his shoulder.   
“What is your deal? Is this all about that dumb trophy?” Ethan stepped back, a little threatened.   
“Okay, fine! If I get it back in the case, will you leave me alone?” He paused for a minute. “Ha! Me? Win a trophy? For sports? No way. Not in a million years.”   
Ethan’s pants once again fell to his ankles, and all his friends laughed at him.

“Congrats on keeping your pants on.” Sarah gigged, meeting Ethan outside.   
“Yeah. About that I have this ghost gym coach after me.He lives to humiliate nerds.”   
“Oh, no. Nerds being humiliated? In high school? Oh, my goodness.” She sarcastically laughed.   
“Didn't you hear me? This is a ghostâ��an evil spirit.” Ethan groaned  
“I heard, but it's a ghost. I can't punch, kick, or bite it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm busy.”   
Benny, Rory, and Mia appeared besides him. “Conway Collegiate's three-time city wrestling champ.” Benny groaned.   
“Forget it, okay? I can’t help you!” Ethan stormed off, leaving the trio alone. 

Benny flung his arm around her, “Mia, I’ll walk you home. Rory, we have some wizard stuff to do so you can’t go with us.” Mia frowned, feeling a little bad for kicking Rory out. 

Rory walked off, leaving Mia and her crush alone. They started walking, “so who’s that boy you’re having troubles with?” “Some dimwit who flirts with every girl he sees. It’s like I don’t even exist to him!” She groaned, clearly frustrated. Benny felt bad for his friend, but even worse for himself. The first girl who wasn’t just a fling, like Della or Erica. “I’m sorry, Mia.” 

They reached Benny’s house and went up to his room, stopping briefly to say hi to Evelynn. Mia followed him up to his room. “Wow, I don’t think I’ve been up here before. It’s just about as geeky as Ethan’s.” It normally wasn’t as clean as Mia was seeing. Benny cleaned his room yesterday, already planning to ask her to come over. He just had an excuse now. 

After an hour or so of searching through spells, they found one they liked, and made their way to Ethan’s house. They both ignored the awkardness of holding hands, neither wanting to pull away. They both walked up the stairs, letting go of each other’s hands while they opened Ethan’s door.

“Hey guys,” he greeted, “any luck?”  
Benny smiled at Ethan mischievously. “Oh yeah, here, take this.” He handed him a camera.   
Mia hopped a litte, excitedly, “we are gonna get the first ever ghost-splosion captured on camera!” Benny smiled a little and pulled out his spell book. “Where is he?” Ethan pointed towards the window.   
Benny and Mia started to chant in unison, a little hesitant, “galga deselphador zek recantor, zoolin maphrak!” They thrusted their hands out, and they say an outline of a big buff guy. After the put their hands back down, they waited a second, then Ethan’s mint in-box items flew off the shelf.   
“Woah!” Mia shouted.   
“So not cool ghost dude.” Benny whined.   
“Sorry Ethan. We thought it’d work. Maybe just give this psycho what he wants.” Mia shrugged.   
Ethan too offense to his friends disagreeing with him. “No. Forget it. Not gonna happen.”   
Benny and Mia took this as their cue to leave. Benny cracking open the door to say, “uh, bye ghost guy. Nothing personal about the whole gala delsaphador thing.” He quickly closed the door and made his way downstairs with Mia, making their way to her house. 

 

***  
“This is so weird.” Mia cringed, hiding behind the bush with Benny.   
“We have to do this for Ethan!” He whisper-shouted, keeping his eyes on Sarah and Kurt.

***

Ethan sat in his desk chair, looking at poorly draw pictures of Kurt and Sarah. Benny and Mia sat on his bed, oddly close. “I kept watching and there they were. Laughing, very, very close. Intimate even. In fact, one might even say they were...”   
“Knooding.” Mia finished for him.   
“I can’t even tell what I’m looking at,” Ethan complained, “You’re a pretty crummy artist.”   
“Videos don’t work with vampires, so he did his best.” Mia defended. 

Ethan crumbled up his drawings angerly, “Ugh! That’s it. I’m gonna teach that pretty boy a lesson. I’ll be a wrestling... machine! The Wrestle Max Mark Five!” He smiled at his friends. He encouraged them to head out so he could ‘train.’ They reluctantly left, leaving Ethan to do his push ups and whatever else he had in mind. 

“You think he’ll actually be able to beat Kurt?” Benny asked.   
“Maybe? He’ll find a way.” Mia nodded reassuringly. “Let’s just hope he doesn’t die in the process.” She patted Benny’s back as he chucked at her remark. 

The next day, Rory, Benny, and Mia all sat on a bench, waiting for Ethan to start his match with Kurt.  
“Ah! In the spirit of non-competition, I pledge to be a non-partisan referee for tonight's match, so, uh well, may every man win, or, uh at least survive.  
Representing Conway Collegiate, we have Kurt "The Hurt" Lochner.” The crowed cheered. “Okay, all right, and representing White Chapel High, we-“   
“Wait.” Benny grabbed the mic from Mr.G. Mia put her head in her hands in embarrassment. “From a land of fear and nightmares comes a warrior born to destroy. He speaks only violence. He knows only hatred. His headlock is a crime against humanity! Behold the Ethanatorrrrr!!” Rory ran in front if Ethan, carrying sparklers. Ethan’s friends yelled and cheered as loud as they could over the booing crowed.   
“Okay, guys, if we can get you to to shake hands here, that'd be nice.” Mr.G smiled at the two competitors.  
“Do your catchphrase! Do it!”   
“Prepare to be Ethanized!” Ethan turned and smiled weakly at Benny.   
“You're not gonna like these apples.”  
“Even his catchphrase is better!“ Ethan looked dejectedly at his friends who smiled in sympathy.

Mr.G blew the whistle, signaling the match was about to start. Mia hid her head in Benny’s shoulder, too scared by the loud sounds and yelling to watch. Benny gladly let her stay snugged up to him, as he wrapped his arm around her and grabbed his camera with the other hand when we watched Ethan get slammed into the ground.   
“This wont end well.” Rory muttered.   
“I hope not.” Benny hit record.   
“Benny! Be nice to Ethan.” Mia mumbled into his shoulder. 

“There's your friend.” He smirked at us and dropped Ethan. “I'll See you in round two, dork. You too, sweetheart.” He winked at Mia, and she gagged, disgusted. Benny glared at him, shaking his head as they all got up to comfort Ethan. “Take a seat, dude.” 

“You survived a whole round without him breaking your spine in half. Nice!” Rory tried to comfort him.   
“Sorry, dude, but for a guy in agony, you make some hilarious faces.” Mia slapped Benny’s thigh.   
“Ethan, are you insane?! You don't know what you're up against.” Mia tried to reason.   
“This guy is unstoppable.” Sarah came over, a worried look on her face.  
“I guess that's why you like him.” Ethan mumbled, passive aggressively.   
“What? I don't like him. Come on.” She scoffed at Ethan. Rolling her eyes.   
“I saw you watching him, talking, laughing, knoodling.”   
“Mad knoodling.” Benny chimed in.   
“Noodle what?” She shook head head as she explained. “Look, I thought Erica turned him into a vampire, so I was watching him. I even checked his neck for bite marks�� which was hard since he's so ticklish�� but I do not like him.” She tried to prove, being a little offended.   
“I have to pin him? Impossible.” Ethan said, talking to what his friends assumed, was the ghost guy.   
“How about some magic? Let's see how well he wrestles with worms in his ears, huh?” Benny cracked his knuckles, flashing Mia a smile when she gigged at his remark.   
“No magic. We can't cheat.” Ethan told him, dejectedly.   
“Then think of something. Everybody has a weakness, right? Just find it and exploit it.”  
“Just please stop. Leave me alone.” Ethan groaned weakly.   
“Looks like he's practicing new ways to beg for mercy. Smart!” Rory exclaimed encouragingly.   
“It's no use. I’ve never won a fight. Ever.”   
False. Remember that time in grade two when I took your Pokemon lunchbox? You whipped me good. I almost cried.” Benny sat down, looking a little ashamed.   
“Grade two!” Ethan smiled. “That gives me an idea. Thanks, Benny.”

Mr.G blew his whistle again, and Mia shoved her head back into Benny’s shoulder.

“Dude, are you are you hugging me?” Kurt yelled, confused.   
“I'm wrestling old school.Oakwood Elementary, to be exact.”  
“The snuggy bear hug! He's got it locked on. There's no escape!” Mia smiled in Benny’s shoulder, proud of Ethan. 

“I did it! I did it! It's curtain time for Kurt "The Hurt" Lochner!” The smile on Ethan’s face screamed joy. Although some a little jealous, his friends were proud of him. “Well done, Ethan. But remember, it's not about winning, right?” Mr.G encouraged, smiling at him.   
“Time to move on, Coach. A deal's a deal.” Ethan started talking to coach Ed again, “He's backing out of our deal!”   
“What? He can't!” Benny shouted, a little aggravated.   
“A supernatural pact is binding in all dimensions!” Mia explained  
He went quiet for a few minutes. 

Kurt got up, grunting and ripping his shitt before running towards Sarah. “Hey, you know what? I will not be beaten by a geek!”   
“Update You got beaten by a geek AND a girl. Go get yourself a new shirt.” Sarah smiled after she clothslined him. 

“Thanks, but I could have taken him. So, uh about Saturday night...”   
“Oh, that. I thought if Kurt was a vampire, I'd need backup to take him down, but we're all good now.” Sarah smiled at him, playing with her hands.   
“Right. Yeah. Good. Good. I thought it was something like that.” Ethan smiled back, clearly disappointed.   
“But if we're not catching vampires, maybe we could go catch a movie?” She raised an eyebrow at him.   
“Yeah, cool. Should have the feeling back in my fingertips by then.” Benny and Mia grabbed each other’s hands and squeezed them in excitedly, trying to be quiet. 

***  
Somehow, the whole friend group ended up watching a movie with Sarah and Ethan. Benny and Mia and Rory all somehow, also joined them. 

Ethan and Sarah sat close together, and Mia sat buried in Ethan’s shoulder, flinching a little each time a blood curtling scream came on. Rory sat on Mia’s other side, and Jane laid across all their laps. 

“You gotta admit, watching Skull Stealers III beats having to shake and stake a vamp any day.” Ethan joked, trying to slip an arm around Sarah.   
“Just slightly.” She chuckled back.   
Sarah’s phone started ringing.   
“Oh, hey, hold on a sec. Hey, Erica. Thanks for calling back. I'm really sorry for not trusting you earlier. I feel awful.” She smiled as she hung up. And the teens continued watching their movie.


	10. Blue Moon

Benny walked to the lounge of school, upon arriving he already saw his friends.

“Hey! Who’s got two thumbs, three free candy bars, and is best budd with David Stachowski. That’s right. This guy!” 

Mia chuckled at him while Sarah stared im disbelief. Ethan looked at him like he ruined any and all chances he had of getting a girlfriend in high school.

“Hey, Mia, you want one?” Benny smiled at her, already tossing her one. She gladly took it, “thanks Benn.” 

Sarah shook head head, “I, uh, see what you mean.” She turned to Ethan.   
“It gets worse. It’s like he’s inserted himself into my life. He’s always at my house, raiding my fridge!” 

“So he eats all your food. Not enough to break up a good bromance.” Sarah grabbed his cheek, smirking at him. 

“There’s more. The guy howls!”   
“Woo-hoo! Free candy bar!” We turned to see David, howling. 

“A lot of dudes howl,” Benny tried to reason,”It's a it's a jock animal thing.” 

“I can't be the only one who's noticed how hairy he is.” Ethan also tried to reason. 

“So he's hairy. A lot of guys are hairy. It's a hairy guy thing.” Benny tried once again, to accept that they had a jock friend. 

“Howling plus hair, plus this town equals--“ 

“Awesome.” Benny smirked. 

“Werewolf.” Ethan said, hoping Benny would realize. 

“Werewolf.” Benny repeated, pursing his lips. 

“Ethan, not everything is supernatural. You're obsessed.” Sarah giggled at him a little, leaning back. 

“Yeah, he's just hanging out with us 'cause he realized how cool we are.” 

“Or,” Mia chimed in, “He’s actually a werewolf. No highschooler is that hairy! And that obnoxious.” 

“Okay, maybe he’s a werewolf.” Benny shrugged.

“Okay, we prove that David's a werewolf. Then we figure out what he wants.”

“I've got better things to do than stalk back shavers.” Sarah got up, walking off   
“Like what?” Mia yelled after her.   
“Soccer tryouts!” She smiled. “Good luck!” The three teens coursed back. 

“I think she was serious.” Ethan muttered, a little confused.   
“Oh, well, in that case I'm sure it'll be fine.” Benny gave his friends a toothy grin, subtly putting his arm around Mia. 

They all made their way to their lockers, and quickly split up to head to their after lunch classes. 

***  
Benny saw his friends head down the stairs, and made his way over to them, so they could all head to football practice together.   
“Dude, I've got it. A spell that will totally prove that David's a werewolf.... A K9 lupus. One hit, and wham! Claw and tooth time. We get it on tape, throw it on the net, two million views later, ka-chow! Bucks and Benny. But uh... I hope our favorite girl friend wouldn’t mind helping us?” He gave Mia a toothy grin that she couldn’t resist. 

“You left out biting and bodies. And yes, I’m help.” Mia scoffed. 

“If there's a werewolf in school, you're gonna get plenty of both.” Ethan explained. 

“Do you want to know if he's a K9 or not? Better to find out now, and on camera, 'cause there's a full moon on Friday.  
David may be part animal, but he's all money.” Benny tried to reason. Looking at Mia, hoping she’d be on bored. 

“Hey, guys! Who's a party animal? It's me, right?” Rory came over, smiling at us.   
“No, it's David. Don't worry about it.” Ethan told him. Harshly.  
“Are you having a party? 'Cause my Friday's wide open. And Saturday. And Sunday.” Rory told his friends, excitedly.

“Uh, sorry, Rory. We're going to the um, garlic and tanning bed convention. It'd be so cool if you came, but you know, you'd burst into flames. Next time? Yeah.” Ethan tried to sympathize. 

“For sure. I'll see you guys later.” Rory furrowed his brow and walked away, a frown evident on his face. 

“Harsh, dude.” Benny groaned, seeing the frown on Mia’s face. 

“Had to be done. If David really is a werewolf, he'd tear Rory to shreds.”

“Still a little mean.” Mia muttered. Her eyes widened and she turned around, yelling at Rory. “Hey, Rorster! Wanna hang out with me this weekend?”   
“Yeah, totally!”   
“Text me, okay!?”   
“Got it!”

Benny glared until she turned back around. “If you want, I can come too. And Ethan maybe. But he’s a party pooper.” 

Ethan hit his shoulder while Mia nodded. “I’ll think about it.” 

 

They all made their way to the football practice session, and stood together on the sidelines.   
“Alright, just one little spell, and things are about to get furry.” Benny opened the spell book, giving Mia room to look at it. 

“Heads up. Awkwardness at 12 o'clock.” Ethan muttered, eyeing Erica across the field.   
Mia let out a giggle until David fell.   
“Guys, do it now! Zap him!   
“Zap him?” Mia mocked, crossing her arms.  
“This is magic, not Star Wars. Totally different geek universe!” Benny shook his head. “You ready?” He turned to Mia and she nodded.   
“Domlath lupus gorkanoth.” Yellow strobes few from their hands, and simultaneously hit Ethan. “Benny!”   
“Sorry, dude. I got nervous. Anyway, don't worry. You're not a wolf. You'll be fine.”

“Domlath lupus gorkanoth!” This time, their strobes of light hit David, and he shook a little before falling to the floor.   
“Camera! Camera!” Benny yelled  
“I'm trying!”  
Mia chuckled at their childish-ness.   
“Gimme that! Dude is so not a werewolf.”  
Benny groaned, putting the camera away. 

“Enough. There's only one way to do this.  
Cover me. I'm going in.”  
“Ethan don’t be stupid.” Mia warned, pointing her finger at him.   
“What? Cover you? What does that even mean?” Benny squinted his eyes at Ethan, a confused look on his face. 

Ethan ran into the center of football practice, and caught the ball and turned to his friend’s with wide eyes. “Guys! Guys!” He looked at them with a proud smile on his face until he got knocked over by David.

“Sorry, bud. I see a ball I go for it.” David cracked a smile at him, feeling a little bad. 

“I'm fine. Nothing a hospital can’t fix. “ He smiled at David and walked back over to his friends. They exchanged a few more words before David ran off, away from his werewolf crazy girlfriend, Erica. 

Mia and Benny exchanged glances and jogged over to Ethan. “So no on the wolf out, but I did get great footage of you getting absolutely owned. Perfect for YouTube!” Mia giggled and slapped Benny’s arm. “Are you okay Ethan?” She sympathized. 

Ethan shook his head for a secound, then looked up at his friends. “I’m fine, thanks. And David's definitely a werewolf.” 

“What? No, my wolf reveal spell didn't work. He's fine.” Benny explained, a little in disbelief. 

“No, trust me. He's a wolf. I saw it. I had a vision.” 

“Then, uh you've got a big problem.” Mia gave him a sympathetic smile and motioned to the big scratch on his arm. 

“Please tell me I'm not going to turn into some kind of werewolf jock!” Ethan worriedly looked back and fourth between his friends, whining. 

“No way. It doesn't work like that.” Benny shook his head.  
“You'd be a werewolf geek.” Mia chuckled, earning a hi-5 from Benny. 

***  
Ethan ran up to his friends, who were walking to the lounge together. “Benny! Mia! I think I'm changing. I chased a car this morning... 17 blocks! I only lost it when it went on the freeway...” 

“Would you relax? I checked in with Professor Google.” Benny motioned to Mia, “You have to be bitten by a werewolf when it's a wolf for the curse to pass on.  
You just got scratched by David when he was in jock form. Unless Benny’s spell turned you into a wolf.”   
“Um,” he looked at her, playfully offended, “you did the spell with me!”  
She shrugged and walked over to Sarah, her friend’s following.

“Hey, Sarah.” Mia waved, Benny following suit.   
“Your pal David's a real charmer.” She chuckled at Ethan and Benny. 

“Well, he is your ancestral enemy.” Ethan glared at her, looking ready to defend himself. 

“Or maybe he's just a jerk.” She squinted, not sure if Ethan was joking.   
“Little Miss Neck Biter has trouble believing in werewolves?” He stepped forward a little, only to be held back by Benny and Mia. 

“Whoa, whoa, Ethan, what's gotten into you? Who are the ancestral enemies now, huh?” Benny chuckled, exchanging worried glances with Mia. 

“What'd you call me?” Sarah got up, standing right in front of Ethan. 

“Whatever. Don't get your fangs in a twist.” They both got ready to step forward as Benny stepped between them. 

“So, um moving on that symbol you saw, we looked it up last night. And get this. It's for a reversal cure.” He pulled out a piece of paper, showing the symbol. 

“A cure?! Does it work for other curses, like a vampire curse?” Sarah asked, excitedly. 

“Why? Soccer team have a strict "no blood sucker" policy?” Ethan glared at her again, and Mia stayed next to Ethan, ready to freeze him. 

“It might work on other curses. David's probably trying to find it before the full moon tonight.” Benny made sure to keep a good distance between Ethan and Sarah, while looking at both of them. 

“We're ditching class. You are helping me find this cure now.” Sarah grabbed Benny’s hand and glared at Ethan. “We are not done.” 

Mia didn’t like that, so she grabbed Ethan’s hand, and walked in the opposite direction. “Not if we find it first.” She had no real intention of looking, but she wanted to make Benny jealous. 

 

Mia and Ethan silently marched to Ethan’s house, Mia crossing her arms almost the whole time. 

The silence was broke once Ethan calmed down.   
“So, why’d you get mad at Benny? Or Sarah. Who were you mad at?” 

“Huh? I wasn’t mad. Sarah and Benny decided to be buddy buddy, so I thought you needed a buddy too.”   
“Oh.” He shrugged.   
“Do you like Benny?”   
“What do you mean?”   
“I mean, you always glare when he says something flirty to another girl. So I kind of assumed.” He shrugged again, a little nervous.   
“What?”   
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure you like him.”   
“Why’d you say that? Does he like me?”  
“Maybe. You should ask him yourself. I mean, I know for a fact he think’s you’re hot.” Mia smiled to herself, and nodded as her and Ethan continued on their way to his house, the awkwardness calming down.

***

Mia and Ethan stood in his kitchen. Ethan looking through the fridge while Mia opened cabinets, curiously. 

“Hey, honey! Guess who got two last-minute tickets to "Curling, The Musical"?” Ethan’s mom walked in, a little caught off guard when she saw Mia, but offered a nice smile anyway.   
“Don't worry, buddy. Your new pal David's already here. He can help you watch Jane.” His dad smiled, adjusting his watch.   
“What?”   
“Yeah, what?” Mia chimed in, quietly.   
Just then, David walked in, smiling at Ethan’s parents.   
“Okay, so anyway, I know it's a full moon tonight. Let's not do anything too crazy. Night, guys.” With that, his parent’s left. Trusting their son and a football player, and a teenage girl. 

“So, bud, I've got a, uh-“   
“Dude. I know that you're a werewolf, and I know that you're here after some kind of cure.” Ethan stopped him, getting straight to the point. 

“So you do have the gift. I knew it!” 

“Or you're the most obvious werewolf ever.” Mia chimed in. 

“I didn't need a gift to see this.” Ethan pulled down David’s shirt, showing his hairy chest. “You know there's a pill for fleas now, right?”

“All right, let's cut to the chase. I became your friend because I'm hoping your second sight might help me find the cure.” 

“All I saw was a symbol, but I don't know what it means.” Ethan tried to reason. 

“Listen, it's the full moon, man! You want me to turn into a snarling beast? Well, I-- You have no idea how hard it is holding it in. I want to be me again.” David begged and whined, getting upset once he realized Ethan might not be able to help. 

“Hold that thought.” Ethan rushed to the bathroom, leaving Mia to counsel David. “Just do whatever, me and Ethan are gonna work on it. Okay? We’ll try and help you.” She smiled sympathetically, staying far away from him.

***

Mia and Ethan sat on his bed, going through an old folklore book. The computer started ringing and Ethan jumped up to answer it. Mia turned the lights down for him, in case it was someone who didn’t need to see Ethan in his ‘primal’ form. 

“Ethan? It looks like you're in the trunk of a car. Are you? Are you trapped in a car trunk again?” Benny furrowed his brows, worried for his friend.   
“Benny, it's happening.” 

“Ethan, we really need to know what this means.  
“I don't know...”  
“It's a reversal cure. Maybe try looking at it backwards?” Mia chimed in. 

Sarah ran to the bathroom and Benny glared at the screen, “Ethan, Mia’s at your house?”   
“Yeah. Sarah’s at yours?” Ethan glared back, not in the mood to argue.   
Sarah ran back in.   
“Baharoth? Great. That makes so much sense now.” Sarah sighed and threw her arms up in defeat.   
“No, no, no. It totally does.” Benny smiled all all his friends.!  
“A baharoth is, like, a magic circle of stones.” Mia chimed in, finding the meaning in her book faster than Benny did.   
Benny found it almost immediately after she said it, and held it up to show Ethan.   
“Wait. I've seen that! In the park behind your house!”   
Sarah pushed Benny over, and he looked at the screen, “Ethan, whatever you do, do not tell David. I need to get there first.”  
“David really wants that cure. He's not into the whole werewolf thing.”  
“Yeah, well, just keep a lid on it.” She rushed out, leaving Benny, and his friend’s behind the screen. 

 

“Is she gone?” Mia turned the light switch on for him.   
“Oh, dude! Harsh!” Benny practically screamed.   
“Thanks! Thanks for making me feel better!” Benny shrugged, feeling the tiniest bit of sorry.  
“Oh, wait. This might actually be my fault. That spell I hit you with, what if that's what's making you wolf out?” Ethan glared at him, waiting.   
“What if I helped! I just followed what Benny was saying! Oh my god.” Mia put her head in her hands, then flopped down on the bed.   
“I made you a werewolf! I'll be right there!”   
Benny hung up on his friends and immediately, the doorbell rung.  
“Dude is fast!”  
“This is gonna sound weird, but in case you wolf out, we’ll need to have you restrained.” 

***

 

Benny walked in a few minutes later, watching Mia look at Ethan’s shelves while he sat tied up to the bed. 

“Oh, not your vintage Galactitac sheets! You might pee on them!” Benny whined, a little confused.   
“Benny, just stay away, okay? The moon I'm... changing!”   
Okay, relax. I did this. I can fix it. All right? Or... she can do it!” Benny tossed Mia the spell book.   
“What? I-“   
“Just do it!” Ethan yelled.   
“Okay, whatever.” She sighed. “Corvus Trigon!” A thick beam of purple light shot through her hand, and then teens were silent for a minute.   
“I'm still hairy!”   
“Okay, dude. Chill. You're cured. Trust me. The hair will fall out. Now come on. Gotta get to the party, and find the real werewolf.” Benny started untying Ethan’s legs, and Mia walked over to help with his arms. 

“What? Who’s having a party?” 

 

“You are. Now let's go find David.” Benny chuckled, a little confused, but rolling with it anyway. 

***  
Before anyone knew what was happening, there were two dogs in the basement, and Rory screaming. 

“Don't hurt me. I just want to make you famous. And me rich!” Benny filmed Ethan, as close as he could. He shielded Mia, but kept the camera steady. 

“Use him like a chew toy!” Erica giggled.   
“I thought we were friends!” Benny groaned.   
“Bad dog!” Sarah put herself between Benny and Ethan, snarling at him before jumping on his back and shoving the potion down his throat.   
He slowly turned human and Erica rushed over. “What did you do?”   
“I cured him.” Sarah shrugged.   
“How would you like it if I went around curing all of your boyfriends?” Erica turned back look at what she thought was David.   
“Ethan?! Really?! Eww! So not looking!”  
“Where's David?” Benny turned to Mia, thinking she’d know. She shrugged and pointed towards the big dog. “That's David? Ugh. That is so lame.”  
“Great. Just what the internet needs. A cute animal video.” Benny sighed, and Mia patted his shoulder sympathetically, a weird look on her face. 

***

Mia stood by Sarah, giggiling when Benny walked by with David, a varsity jacket on his shoulders.   
“Yo. Get a load of us.” He smirked, walking over twords us.   
“Speak of the devil.” Sarah muttered, a little amused.   
“He's teaching me everything he knows about getting chicks.” Benny chuckled, eyeing Mia a little.   
“It's true, not every guy can pick up a girl as beautiful as you.”  
“Yeah?” Sarah had a look of hilarious disbelief as she searched through her locker.  
“You were ready to give up your cure for me. Let me thank you properly.” He smiled at her and she pulled out a tennis ball.   
“Fetch!” She smiled as she watch him chaze it, away from her.   
“Sorry, I'm just not a dog person.”


End file.
